Did you know that in 2005 the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) stated that the United Airlines Flight Attendant pension plan was the only UAL pension plan sound enough to survive bankruptcy? The PBGC’s Executive Director said, “the AFA plan can and should be maintained by the company upon emergence from Chapter 11.” Yet United Flight Attendants are still without a pension.
Did you know that United Flight Attendants had an opportunity to participate in the IAM National Pension Plan in 2005? That’s right; United Airlines, with approval from the IAM, offered United Flight Attendants the same guaranteed, defined benefit pension plan the IAM negotiated for its members at United.
If that is news to you, you are not alone. Even most of the United Flight Attendant negotiating committee wasn’t told of the offer. That is because a select few members of United AFA-CWA MEC decided to keep the offer secret, instead of allowing Flight Attendants the right to choose for themselves what they wanted. Recent claims that the MEC looked into the plan are false, as the AFA-CWA never even made any requests for the information necessary to properly evaluate the plan.
The IAM is not saying whether or not United Flight Attendants should have been in the IAM National Pension Plan – that is a decision only United Flight Attendants could have made. The issue is that rank and file Flight Attendants were not notified of the offer of a replacement pension plan and were denied an opportunity to vote by the same union leadership they didn't elect.
United contributes the equivalent of 6.5% of an IAM-represented ramp workers’ pay into a real pension plan that provides a guaranteed, defined benefit. This is in addition to their PBGC benefit.
United only makes a 3% direct contribution into a Flight Attendant’s 401(k) account for a benefit that fluctuates with the stock market and individual investment choices.
Continental Flight Attendants have a defined benefit pension plan, a back-up defined benefit pension plan and a 401(k) match. Continental Micronesia Flight Attendants have the secure IAM National Pension Plan.
The IAM will negotiate all available pension options for the combined group. Flight Attendants will then choose what they want by a special pension vote.
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