IAM-represented Flight Service Specialists at Lockheed Martin play a critical role in ensuring the safety of America’s skies, providing weather, flight and other vital information to civil aviation pilots across the country. When the Federal Aviation Administration privatized Flight Service in 2005, it deprived the Specialists of their early retirement federal pensions – a benefit that Specialists had paid for with increased contributions out of their own paychecks!
H.R. 5115, introduced by Congressman Mark Schauer (D, MI), is designed to right this wrong. If enacted, H.R. 5115 will permit Flight Service personnel who were involuntarily privatized in 2005 to count their subsequent time as privatized Flight Service employees (or with another job in the federal government) toward their years of service necessary to qualify for enhanced federal early retirement benefits and toward the calculation of their federal benefits. Covered individuals will qualify for early retirement benefits if they: (1) reach age 50 with 20 years of service, counting qualified post-FAA time; (2) have 25 or more years of service, counting qualified post-FAA time; or (3) reach age 56.
You can help support fairness for Flight Service Specialists. Click here to tell Congress to restore the retirement benefits Flight Service Specialists rightfully earned.
