Does anyone out there know what sort of 401K match that the carriers that eliminated their pension plans have?
I dont see AA getting rid of their plan just yet. Why would they?
Lets say they did away with the pension and went with only a 3% match. Well for me,last year it would cost $1860, instead of the $1100 the traditional pension cost them. So a 401K would not only have been more expensive but they would have lost the only bargaining chip they have. Forget what the pension liability is, they defered that till far off in the future, that chip got them over $1.2 billion a year in concessions from the TWU alone.
What I think they will try and do is try and go with a 401K for new hires with the promise that those of us on the defined plan will remain on it, for now. The TWU will agree to yet another way to split up the membership. Pay rates will remain low, they will sell it off to the senior guys by claiming that they have to save the pension and sell off a shortened progression to the new hires. Eventually they will screw the guys on the DB plan because the extensions they won as far as underfunding the plan will come due.
The fact of the matter is that the only reason why our plan is still in place is because it more than pays for itself for the company.The savings they get by having it in place pays more than they could ever hope to save by eliminating it. So contrary to what we've been told by the company and its "union" the DB plan at present is not more costly than DC plans, in fact its the opposite.
By splitting the membership between DB and DC AMR and the TWU insure that for many years into the future they will be looking at a divided workforce and will simply play one off against the others like they have done for the last twenty years.
DB, DC, long progressions with extremely low starting rates, over 20 powerless locals with appointed International stooges in charge of the contract,one of their own in charge of the union, overhaul in about as close to third world cost areas of the US as you can find, management couldnt dream of a better setup than that.
One thing is for sure, if American Airlines' favorite low level member of management, Jim Little, is in charge, we are screwed.