Technically he will have earned the pension once he completes the 60 days of "training". Our pension, the NYS Teamsters Pension Fund, is a multi-employer plan and, yes, Yellow is one of the participating employers.
We don't have an issue with the 60 days. We are concerned that grievances may have been traded/thrown out to make this deal happen. The only liability UPS will have are the 60 days worth of contributions to the pension plan.
I think what you, and other might be missing, is that YRC has garnered numerous concessions due to their financial woes in the past few years.
I'm not exactly sure what the pension concessions are from region to region, but I know they are significant.
The company has only just recently began to start making partial pension contributions again, after several years of exemptions, for their employees and is dire straights with a very unsure future.
During those years their employees earned zero years toward a retirement pension.
I'm sure that if he returned to his company as the system is designed, he would be subject to the same concessions that the rest of Yellow's employees were subject to while he was in office.
By this guy pulling off this little shell game, he is avoiding the same financial hardship the rest of his co-workers are incurring.
There is no other reason for this guy to do 60 days at UPS before retiring.
It's a dirty little side deal and it stinks!!!