Hmm, did Joan mean discretionary funds for salary (discretionary funds aren't sustainable),or one time payout?

Either way I agree that management should not be required to have equal pay raises for all.   Ownership reserves the right to pay more to those they feel contribute more.   

Fixed benefits often deny the very real changing economic environment that all business face at one point or another.

These kind of 'formula's' for pay are seldom as fair as they seem on the surface

I'm 100% behind collective bargaining.  I just don't happen to think the objectives of 'the collective' are always effective, or sensitive to the needs of the organization that supports the workers income.

Private unions have been decimated, you would hope they'd change their objectives knowing that they have failed with past design.  Public unions are a different kind of beast.