wkmac
Well-Known Member
Those 10 words are really at the heart of this whole situation. This problem has been building for many years and what does the IBT and UPS do? IBT sits silent until the problem is so severe they have to react and can't hide it anymore and UPS decides it wants to limit it's own liability and make a move to take over the pension fund. Now I'm sure there are truckloads of reasons why both sides took the actions they did but the bottomline is both sides hid the real picture of what was building.
As for the actuary information, several years ago after the balloon went up, a number of IBT members joined together to try and get info from the IBT and Central States including the Actuary Tables they used and were denied. Lil' Jimmy himself even authorized an actuary study but refused to disclose that info to the membership at large. A lawsuit did result but where it stands now I don't know but I will say this much. To many of us have come to distrust the IBT and it's promises to look out for your interests. They are as much a business as UPS is a business and neither in the end have your best interest at heart. The only way to benefit from either/both is when your interests coincide with theirs and then you gain but the moment it doesn't then you'll get the shaft. This in not an indictment against either to single them out alone as this is the nature of business. You either learn and adjust to work within that frame work or you just go nuts. You've got to plan and have alternatives, you can't rely on either one because odds are they won't come through.
We are not gonna get the monthly pension increased and we are not gonna get the retire age reduced back to 55 or some of the 25 and 30 and out options we once had. I do think we have an option however that is worth pushing for which would at least allow for what I would call an "escape plan" at 57. I'm not looking to go sit on the couch and eat bon-bons when I retire but at 57 when I've had well over 30 years of FT service at UPS, I'd like to leave this rat race and do something different, less stressful and not exactly for the money either. Do something I really enjoy. Like one co-worker said, his dream job was to be a reviewer of adult films and strip clubs. LOL! I think I can do better but I understood his humeorus point. We should be pushing hard as a first step for the total and complete elimination of all work restricitons for all retirees at any age unless that work is for another IBT covered employer. I do and can understand that point. I do think this is doable and I also don't think this matters one way or the other to Central States itself but is rather a point of order instilled by the IBT itself. Now the total restriction imposed in Nov. 03' was a Central States one to put a halt to as many as possible from retiring at the moment and as a result of the firestorm among retirees and current working members, many who were about to retire and those who had specific plans once retired, CS bent to the pressure (even Hoffa was forced to go to bat on this one) and the changes have been moderated a great deal. However, they could change at any moment and they still are limiting. We should be pushing hard and making this a "make or break" deal with the union leadership.
This is a battle I think we can win because it's a political battle and pure numbers would make this win-able. It may not be the $10k per month of the IAM or the promised $7k per month of the APWA but it would at least give some of us an out at 57 to get away from this worsening pressure cooker and for the younger guys, it would open up chances to move up or move into other jobs with better opportunities. I see this as a win/win for both the older and young UPS Teamster.
Yes, you are correct in a cold kinda way but you have one problem you failed to mention. Those retirees you speak of were part of a smaller generation of worker as the overall population was smaller. We are just entering the timeframe for the babyboomer generation to start retiring and like with social security, the babyboomers of which I am one, are the real fear factors in all of this. If you'll read much of the info sent out on a quarterly basis by CS (Teamwork Magazine) you can see that part of the "perfect storm" scenario was the growing numbers of retirees now and on the horizon. And the problem is really not so much the monthly pension payout but what's killing us and many other is the cost of healthcare, especially retiree healthcare. Isn't is odd that 62' became the magic number in that you monthly medical cost is at it's lowest and under the current retiree work rules, you can just about work any job and in some cases even work an IBT covered job and still keep your pension. Why? Ah, you are nearing that magic age where the gov't will pickup you medical costs and the union is off the hook. If they can get us all to work until were 62' everything will be AOK and that is the goal but to be honest I'm not looking forward to doing that for 10 plus more years although I've mentally prepared myself to do so.
Look around at other companies with pension concerns like GM for example. They've already openly admitted their problems are the rising medical costs and it's a driving factor for them. Even here at UPS for not only us but for those covered by company plans, we've all seen vast changes to our medical benefits and those management folks brave enough to express an open opinion are about as happy as we are. This is a fact of life, not something specific to us as Teamsters or even UPSers. And it will likely get worse because as UPS/Teamsters covered by CS, we've had our healthcare contract increases the last 2 years taken to place into the CS pension fund and this will continue through this current contract. In otherwords, your current healthcare today is being bought with 2003' dollars so now you know why you medical bennies continue to worsen. "THEY NEVER TOLD ME THIS!" Oh yes they did, you just failed to read those quarterly Teamwork magazines they send out as you so blindly trust your union.
Now let's talk babyboomers and UPS specifically. You have a situation where in the 70's and 80's UPS saw huge growth and with it, it's IBT covered workforce. Those workers, again of which I am one, are on the edge of retiring and in pretty large numbers. Now UPS is still doing pretty good so the ratio of retirees to active workers is still very healthy. I believe the ratio is over 5 working to 1 retiree currently. UPS knows this and thus one of the reasons they are more than willing to take control of the whole thing because it's a piece of cake to quickly overfund the plan and thus they can actually make money and we still get a nice retirement but that's water over the damn. APWA also knows that the monies earmarked for pensions under the current contract compounded with the worker/retiree ratio makes their ability to overfund very easy and again you have the nice suggested payouts. The IAM is 124% overfunded and look at their monthly payouts. I remember hearing a union official say back in the late 80's that you never wanted a fully funded or overfunded pension plan and I thought to myself at the time what a stupid thing to say. I know now that underfunding means control factor so that explains that! UPS alone has some great demographics and going into the future it still looks good. But when you add us in to a fund bogged down with what CS has, the picture is rather bleak.
It is possible for CS to survive and even get through the babyboomer generation and also get past the numerous trucklines that went bye-bye in the 80's and 90's. The question is not will it but rather what will it cost to do so and specifically what will it cost us, the UPS members, to do so?
On the one hand, you can take the blue pill and tomorrow you will wake up in your bed and your secure world and all will be fine or you can take the red pill and see just how far the rabbit hole goes!
Very true, which is why its so good.
