( – promoted by Jack McCullough)
Early in yesterday’s Free Press debate, Brian Dubie once again put on his “union guy” hat, choosing this time, however just to say “I belong to a labor union.” Given that it looks like Dubie is not going to drop his “union guy” claim any time soon, I have to wonder why he introduced a proposal during the October 7 VPT debate to gut state employees’ retirement by switching his VSEA brothers and sisters from a defined benefit pension plan to a defined contribution pension plan (read: if your personal investment skills suck, your retirement probably will as well).
This is an odd proposal from Mr. Union Guy because his own union, the Allied Pilots Association (APA), has been fighting a tough battle for years now to protect the defined benefit plan APA pilots negotiated with American Airlines. In fact, pilots belonging to Mr. Dubie’s union are some of the last in the airline industry who still enjoy a defined benefit plan, called simply “Plan A.”
On the blog “Airline Pilot Central,” I found the following entry posted by an American pilot:
“Since the advent of deregulation thirty years ago almost every legacy carrier has been liquidated through bankruptcy or had their defined benefit retirement plans liquidated and the liabilities of those plans passed on to the [federal] PBGC. The one lone exception to this has been American Airlines.”
“From our perspective as pilots there are two problems with replacing defined benefit plans with defined contribution plans. The first problem as was mentioned earlier is that some folks are extraordinarily bad at managing money. In any investor population there are some people that don’t have the interest or the talent to do well in financial matters. Pilots as a group are no exception. Any retirement plan that relies solely on DC plans to fund retirement is likely to have a significant percentage of its retirees reduced to poverty by the end of their retirement.”
“The second problem with the DC plans is that because of limits on how much the government will allow you to contribute to your B plan. In most cases it is not enough to fund an adequate retirement.”
So, Mr. Union Guy sits idly by while his boss cuts Vermont state employee jobs (even though APA pilots are vociferously fighting back against American Airlines’ job cuts) and he parts ways with his APA brothers and sisters on the issue of American pilots switching to a defined contribution plan.
Guessing Mr. Union Guy isn’t a big hit at APA functions, unless he’s putting on a different face with that crowd.
Note: Vermonters are going to hear a lot from a certain Chicken Little crowd in the next few months about how state employees need to make changes to their pension system or the sky will indeed fall. Please remember that state employees sat with the Douglas Administration, Legislature and the Treasurer in 2007 and agreed to changes that Treasurer Spaulding said at the time would make the employees’ pension fund “sustainable.” In fact, in papers across the state, Vermont officials were praising state employees for their cooperation and compromise. Now, because of recent Wall Street greed and predatory bankers, the pension changes state employees agreed to in 2007 are a convenient distant memory for some. State employees have not forgotten.
Does anyone have the resources to check this out?
I think that other aircraft unions have said that pilots have never respected other unions’ picket lines.
… and the fact that you squeezed in “vociferously” might make it an all-time top 10 GMD post.
for continuing to post about Dubie’s dubious “union man” credentials. I wish that the “mainstream press” in Vermont would cover this story, as well. And perhaps Peter Shumlin could do a better job of calling Dubie out when he makes his phony “union man” claim.
if your personal investment skills suck, your retirement probably will as well
Even if your personal investment skills are great, your retirement will probably suck. This shift over the last few decades is all part of the great scam…