Wretched Wrench said:
So then, TWU pensions use a multiplier of 2.5% compared to our 1.66%. That is 50% more.
Their pension is calculated on their best year. Ours is the average of the last four. Big difference there, too. Over 17%.
And their pension is increased by a 5% COLA yearly, which would result in a 100% increase in your pension in 14 years. We get 0%.
Added together, the numbers are astounding. .....and shameful.
Another case of "leading by example".
Kinda like the pigs in Orwell's Animal Farm.
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Thats only part of it.
According to the "Vermont Plan" the company pays the TWU $3.1 million a year. These monies are paid to union officials. Local Presidents and International officials.
So people such as Little, Gless, Yingst etc are not only earning towards their TWU pension but they are still earning towards their AA pension. For instance if you look at the 2004 LM-2 filed by the TWU to the DOL it lists Gless' salary at around $60k. (The 2003 LM-2 did not list Gless at all).He testified under oath that he gets paid by the company and he earns around $120,000. So he must get $60k from the company, and $60K from the union. Talk about a sweet deal! This way he is double dipping. Still earning his AA pension (and salary)based on a mechanics pay rate while simultaneously earning a pension from the International. As long as he takes his full $120,000 from the TWU for one year his pension will be based on that and his AA pension will be based on his best four out of 10 like ours.
Both Gless and Yingst reportedly told members that they took pay cuts too. Well if they were getting paid by AA this makes sense. As a matter of fact they must be getting paid by AA if they took pay cuts. It means that the money they recieved from AA was in addition to the salary reported on the LM-2. So Gless screwed himself out of $60k through his testimony. Yingst on the other hand is likely getting his $130K? as shown on the LM-2 PLUS another $60k from AA. The same goes for Little and the other AA/TWU International members. When you consider that AA claimed the amount was $3.1 million but we only have 21 Local Presidents the International officers on company pay accounts for the shortfall (21 x $60k =$1,260,000 -$3.1 million=-1.84 million). I also say this because Yingst reportedly told a member of 514 that he took a paycut too, but it was less, around 7%. Well if have two paychecks coming in for a total of $210,000 and take a 17.5% paycut on one of those checks then it makes sense that your total paycut would only be around 7%.
There is a couple of things you also must consider here.
These payments are illegal, the company did not have to go BK in order to stop them. If the TWU did not give the company everything they wanted the company could have terminated these payments and the TWU could do nothing about it.
The company included terminating these payments in the Vermont Plan, no doubt to let the International and the Local Presidents know that if they did not give the company everything they wanted that they personally stood to lose more than if they did.
So in order to keep 82.5% of their illegal payments from the company coming, which is better than nothing, which is what would have happened if they did not meet the company's demands, the International pushed through the biggest concessions package in history. So large that Jim Little even stated that they were "more than adequate". This could also explain the loss of holidays, sick time, vacation, double time etc. None of the BK carriers even sought these concessions until the TWU gave them to AA. We lost those things instead of a straight paycut like the APA because as International officials they recieve those benifits from the International, not the company, so by slashing
our benifits, which they get from the International, they minimized their paycuts.
