nobody's asking for more wage reductions etc. the deal now is this pension releif for yrcw.if you're looking to retire in next yr or two,yea it screws your plan up. if you got 5-8 yrs to go,ss and medicare help,the age for getting that will probaly go up anyhow, and many will have to work more yrs. than they wanted to because of that reason alone. voteing a yes ,is not a vote for a race to the bottom,as you put it. but a chance for npme to stay in business,even though the whole deal is based on yrcw's ability to remain afloat. this pension thing needs fixed, might as well get it done now. it's called mepp, not a 2 company plan that supports what was once 300+ companys, like it or not. it's as much the unions fault where were at for not seeing that times have chaged and so has this pension type funding when there's only 2 basic companys contrubuteing. think a wake up call was when ups was willing to give 6 billion to get out of cs,alone.while still haveing to contribute to the rest of the numerous funds in the country. cs blew through 6 billion in what, a yr and a half. and the companys? they should have forgotten ther hub and spoke way of running freight 10 yrs ago, not a year ago when the economey took the biggest :
: any of us have lived through. running freight 100+ miles past the city it is to be delivered in, handeling it 3 more times than it needs to be handeled, and takeing days to do it. yrc needs volume to survive, and the only way for them to get it is if the ecomey gets back on track. there fixed costs are to great to operate as a low volume freight carrier. same as holland,that why we were called upon to handel the NE area,in a last ditch hope of lowering there total cost struture with out loseing there freight volume.but they don't even get it, you can't be profitable hauling freight for free,and you've got alot of the holland junk and see what i'm talking about. yet there probaly 100% into CS pension plan for there employees, endless black pit. maybe i got off your subject, but i think it's more than just how low or how much :
: will we take. yrcw goes bellyup,and retires's pensions will go where? down and what we should get will be maybe 1/3rd if were lucky. abf won't be able to handle all the pension obligations on there own. well,i guess you could say if that happens they will have finally fixed the MEPP problem at the unionised ltl companys. so 14 months,which will probably be 2 yrs less credits for working, it's a gamble voteing yes, hopeing the economey gets alot better,just to save yrc,which in turn saves npme.it's also a gamble to save everyones pension retired or not ,that i'll take with a yes vote if it comes our way. our baltimore terminals pension plan just changed there earliest retirement age to 65, you think all the other plans won't do something along these same lines to keep solvent? to keep paying the already retired?that happened before anyone even got a chance to vote.