Capt Prater: Here is your sign!

[Hamburger]

Let's try terms that may be easier to grasp.

We are pilots trying to protect quality of life and pay issues that have been industry standard for as long as every working pilot has been employed as such.

Those who are for the change are like a management team coming to the table with a concession package. Replace the words pension and family with profits and company/employees and it's the same song.

If you are against management doing it to pilots, you should be against pilots doing it to pilots.

 

[Flopgut]

Who is "taking" something from their peers. There goes that entitlement mentality. Where did you get the idea you were "owed" an upgrade at a certain point in your career. When the economy tanks and pilots are furloughed should the "greedy" geezers give up their jobs so the younger pilots can keep theirs? The only thing constant in this career is change. How is it any "less greedy" for a junior pilot to be worried about how this will affect his bottom line? Both sides of the coin have valid points and they are all EQUALLY self serving.

Wait, you're entitled to something, and no one else is?

OK, Look: There is a certain amount of money one get's in this business based on when you were hired, when you retire, and what your CBA contains. If a minority number of workers seek extra pay (through seniority), outside the CBA, they're basically desiring to be replacement workers.

Look at recent UAL events: The more senior pilots didn't spare the junior ones in the least attempting to save their A fund. PW emerged from negotiating away scope and pay and the creation of the low cost side and proclaimed "I've saved the A fund". Well, it didn't work out, did it? Now the junior guys are getting extremely screwed in the narrowbodies. I don't care how valiant you might think his efforts were, they didn't work! And when you screw up that bad, you've got to go! I can't believe the audacity some of these senior types have. You don't get to continuosly remortgage the careers of those junior to you until you are perfectly satisfied! Senior UAL types should be after the people who took their pension instead.

Desiring to remain status quo is far "less greedy" in any case. Reamortizing career progression once will simply lead to it again, and again, and again. We need to fix the larger problem.

 

[Huck]

There are those who will be captains for 5 more years,
and there are those who will be F/O's for 5 more years,
and there are those who will be unemployed/underemployed for 5 more years.

Capt. Prater's in the first group,
most of the national and MEC-level ALPA leaders are in the first group,
the Blue-Ribbon Committee (save one) is in the first group,
all of my management pilots are in the first group.

All we can do is shake our fists at this point, but somebody tell Capt. Prater not to expect a tremendous amount of unity after all this - it's going to cost me (and a majority of his members) in the six figures.

 

[hoover]

I will never get used to the fact that I'll be getting ~5 more years as an F/O.

I seriously doubt that you would, either.

AN FO with a 6 digit income. Life's rough isn't it? C'mon folks lets get some perspective here. The most junior mainline guy is pulling down upper 5, if not 6 digits. Meanwhile some of these senior guys worked their entire career only to have the rug pulled out from under them at the last minute. It has nothing to do with how they planned. They "planned" to have their pension. They didn't "plan" to have their pension taken away with nothing to replace it. If the worst thing that happens to you is that you have to spend an extra 5 years at First Officer wages (the aforementioned 6 digit income) then life's been pretty good to you hasn't it?

This is why management always gets the better of pilots. You're too busy screwing each other to fight back.

 

[Neubyfly]

I think you have ALPA confused with bankruptcy court. That is where the pensions were trashed.

ALPO has had years and the hard leasons learned by Pan AM, Eastern and TWA, to name but a few, to see that the current pension plans are NOT safe. Now add United, USair, Delta... ETC ETC. When will they learn?

 

[Falconjet]

Hoover, you may need to work on your reading comp and math skills.

If you think that the senior guys getting 5 more years in the left seat while the junior guys (many of whom also lost their pensions) sit in the right for another 5 years aren't screwing anybody then YOU probably ARE management material.

FJ

 

[Falconjet]

This issue should have nothing to do with anybody's pensions or lack there of.

That is just smoke and mirrors.

FJ

 

[Huck]

C'mon folks lets get some perspective here.

Dear Hoover, I agree.

I found a website that is pretty interesting: Dollar Value Calculator.

According to them, last year I made $90,000 in 1990 dollars (using the consumer price index). This after 21 years of flying, three carriers and some corporate jobs. Yeah, life is good. But with three kids and a wife that stays home, I'm not willing to relax yet. Would you?

And there is no dam way that cargo isn't going to get the same "correction" that the pax world has. In 10 years we'll be back below the majors in pay and benefits - that's the nature of the free market.

MBA's in Louisvlle and Memphis read the WSJ too. So I want max income NOW, before the same sh!tstorm hits us.

Fedex pilots did good with the last contract. But I'm assuming we're comparable to UAL about 1999. I have to.


(On a side note - my dad's salary in 1991 was $225k to fly whales. In today's dollars (CPI) that's $323,000.....)

 

[Yuppyguppy]

If it wasn't a a safety issue then why must one of the pilots be under 60??? They have already admitted to the fact that it could be a problem and what a scheduling nightmrare. Absoulute joke is what this is. AND no I'm not going to get used to it like A350 said.

 

[SuperFLUF]

Come on "fly boy"..
You sound like someone who is uneducated or easy to rush to a conclusion.

A LOT of those senior guys were making great money... and probably saving a small portion based on their expectations of having their RETIREMENT.
They didn't have to save a huge portion of their income. They had a company paid and promised retirement plan.
Of course, promises are not guarantees.

I suggest you not rush to blame or judge people so carelessly.
Maybe as you get older and WISER, you may see how foolish you appear now.

So are you saying then that those who counted on their full pensions without any regard to what was happening to pensions in other industries (steel & auto), without any consideration of the amount acutally "guaranteed" by the PBGC are "older and WISER"?

I submit that anyone who counted on a pension from a corportation without doing any research in to what was actually covered by the PBGC and the true funding situation was a fool. The company can promise anything they want to you, do you just believe it without checking the facts?

How many of those crying poor mouth now spent the money for a decent financial planner when it counted? Any financial planner worth his or her salt would have had a retirement savings plan that only included a small portion of their pension because pensions were on their way out long before 9/11. Hell even Consumer Reports had a story on the death of pensions in the late '90's.

The majority of those lobbying to change the age 60 rule scream about "fairness". Where is the fairness in making up for their mistakes at the expense of everyone junior to them? It does suck that pensions are going away. I was "promised" 2 million at retirement with my pension. Now it will be $60-70k in todays dollars if that is even there when I retire. And don't give me that BS about "you have the time to make it up". Maybe I could if I wasn't being held out of the left seat for an additional 3-5 years and working 5 more years on the back end doesn't make up for that. Not understanding how that works just shows why "they" don't have enough money to retire. Which also brings the question to mind. Retire how? Are you entitled to stay in your "Captain" home and keep your toys along with a $500k motorhome? I imagine most of the "poor mouth" crowd could live just fine with their NEEDs met right now. Just not their WANTS. And so everyone junior to them should pay for that as well. We OWE it to them somehow, I'm sure.

One good thing to come out of all this is to learn the lesson from those "older and wiser" fools who spent all their money and then started thinking about retirement when they hit 45 or 50. Get a good financial planner right now. Then earlier in your carreer, the less it will cost you and the less of your earnings you will have to put away. It is especially critical now that we will lose substantial earning power early in our careers due to the mistakes and greed of others. The writing is on the wall so plan for it. Hopefully the majority opinion can defeat the NPRM but its best to start planning as though it will pass. If it doesn't then your just in better shape for your responsible retirement planning and may be able to scale back the savings a bit later on.