Negotiating on Pension Funding

Our anonymous author "John Dewey" wrote a post about possible negotiating ideas for the upcoming contract (see post in full here).

Although Mr. "Dewey" makes some interesting points, I wonder if the rumor that UPC is negotiating about pension funding is true. Has anyone heard anything about this? (Mr. "Dewey" wrote: "Rumor has it that Stewart will give up the Pension Funding requirement in return for the PAT and charter concessions she seeks.")

Since Mr. Dewey's post, I have talked with some knowledgable people.

I was told that pension funding means the money the state is obligated to provide the pension fund each year--and if the pension fund dips below 90%, CPS is obligated to put in the difference to keep it at 90% funded.

Our pension pick-up, on the other hand, is the 7% CPS has to add to our paychecks in addition to salary, for our total compensation. That 7% pension-pickup was negotiated in lieu of a raise some years back, and cannot stop unless negotiated away by the union, which, of course, would be suicide.

What have you heard? Would Stewart and the UPC negotiate away the CPS contribution to our pension funding?