UPS considering furloughing 300 IPA pilots
03-02-2009, 02:17 PM
#5
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2005
Position: Unknown
Posts: 211
Fellow IPA Members:
This is Bob Miller with an important message from the IPA Executive Board.
In a meeting held with UPS officials, the Executive Board was informed that the Company—as part of a company-wide cost cutting initiative—is considering the furlough of up to three hundred (300) IPA members. According to the Company, we would be given the contractually required 90 days of written notice on June 1. This furlough notice would, at the same time, include the publication of a system bid. It is through this bid that UPS would implement the furlough ninety days later, on September 1.
As we have stated in the past, if we receive a legally required written furlough notice, we will, at that time, but not before, call for an open time ban as would be our contractual right after receiving the notice on June 1.
With regard to staffing, we believe the Company should reconsider and allow IPA to operate the CGN-IST-TLV route. The transfer of this route back to IPA would require six crews. We have the lift, the bi-lateral rights, and people to return to flying this route. Finally, conducting a furlough makes no sense to us under any circumstances with 200 plus UPS flight qualified supervisors on the property.
As part of any possible furlough announcement, the Company is considering—but has made no final decision—accelerating the retirement of the DC-8s. We learned last week that the Company has already so-called “idled” twelve (12) B-757s, and may idle a number of additional 757s. This means the aircraft are available, but are not scheduled on specified routes. The Company further confirmed the planned removal of a significant number of block hours from the overall fleet plan for 2009.
In this message I want to outline some background leading up to the meeting, details of the meeting itself, and, most importantly, I want to outline for you the very aggressive plan the Executive Board has adopted to meet this crisis head on. Before doing that, the Board wants to lay down two basic principles that we have unanimously agreed will guide our actions from this point forward in dealing with these developments.
First, every IPA member from the most senior to the most junior is equally important to the unity and strength of our organization. No member or class of members is expendable. Every member represents a family. We will fight for every single member and every pilot family on the seniority list. We will work hard to avoid a furlough. We will protect our jobs.
Second, while we believe that the global economic crisis is real and has reduced the short-term profitability of UPS, we believe the cost cutting initiative announced is really about shoring up an already strong balance sheet. Said another way, the Company remains profitable and the survival of UPS is not at issue by any measure. In fact, we believe the Company is well poised to dominate over its competitors and return to increased profitability as conditions improve. We will not be stampeded or frightened into a round of concessionary bargaining that we do not believe is needed under current conditions. We will protect our contract.
Having outlined these two principles-- protecting our jobs and protecting our contract-- we are confronted by a Company that says it will, after all, consider not furloughing if, in fact, we can come up with $54 million in annual savings—roughly the savings they project that would be realized by furloughing 300 crewmembers including salary and benefits.
You can clearly see the nice package that has been laid on our doorstep by the Company. We can spend time being frustrated, angry, or we can roll-up our sleeves and get to work creating options that will both protect our jobs and our contract. The Executive Board is focusing on the later.
And now for some background. Up until now, UPS consistently claimed to have no need to furlough pilots, and we took them at their word. As recently as mid-February, we conveyed this message in general membership meetings. In fairness, the Company’s claims were, however, always qualified with cautions that the Company would continue to monitor the economic realities of the business and that the furloughing would remain an option. For our part, we extracted a pledge that the Company would come to us well in advance of any proposed furlough. They have done that.
Against this backdrop, the Executive Board has been busy behind the scenes preparing for this contingency. We have a well considered plan and it has many aspects. Here are the basic components of the IPA plan:
Fight the Logic of any Proposed Furlough. From the Company’s business perspective, we believe a furlough is not in the best interest of the Company for several reasons. First, the true costs of conducting such a furlough may not be properly understood. Training and moving costs will be tremendous. Second, in 18 to 24 months, at the very time we will have a tremendous pilot retirement wave, this is the same time most economists are forecasting an economic rebound. Does it really make sense to put people on the street now that the Company will need to bring back in a short 18 to 24 months?
Challenge Staffing Assumptions. Next, what would be the true cost of schedules built with 300 fewer pilots on property to fly them? We’ve already seen a premature shift in transferring flying from the DC-8 to the A-300. Schedules on the A-300 are being built so tight that we believe service will suffer and hidden costs will emerge.
We are bringing more than rhetoric to this argument. We have heavily invested in a staffing analysis. We have agreed with the Company to put our staffing and scheduling experts together to work through all the numbers. This process has already started. The bottom line is that we are prepared to question the very notion that a furlough is needed. We think a furlough would be costly both in economic terms and in a human toll that is unacceptable.
Identify Cost Savings. We are not opposed to identifying ways to generate cost savings for the Company. We think a number of ideas hold promise and we will be putting them forward in meetings to be held with the Company beginning on March 11. These ideas range from crewmembers taking the initiative to cancel hotel rooms that will not be used to incentives for voluntary early retirements.
Although we are no doubt “hourly workers,” pilots actually manage complex and costly operations on a daily basis. Are there ways to target and identify savings in how we do our job that are not adverse to the interests of safety? We believe so and we have a number of ideas that we will present to the Company with the idea of saving costs and preventing a furlough.
Link Savings to Furlough Protection. A third aspect of our plan is to link any cost savings to ensuring that people are not furloughed. We are not prepared to save the Company money and then see them turn around and conduct a furlough anyway. Any cost savings would “snap back” in the event a furlough would be announced.
So how do we plan to move forward? As mentioned, our numbers experts will continue meeting with their Company counterparts this week. The Executive Board will meet with the Company starting March 11 in sessions that could go through later in March. The goal will be to come up with a mutually agreed to plan that will protect our jobs and protect our contract.
Now for some hard questions. What if we cannot reach agreement on a plan that will prevent a furlough through voluntary savings plans alone? What if the Company will only stop their furlough plan in exchange for temporary, but real economic changes to the contract?
Obviously, these questions are speculative and we hope to produce other options. However, the Executive Board wants to be very clear with the membership. Any agreement that would change the contract—short of voluntary incentive programs—would absolutely require a vote of the membership.
Any proposed agreement would be provided to the membership with a full thirty (30) day study/discussion period followed by a full thirty (30) day voting period. The proposed agreement might be recommended by the EB for passage. Absent mutual agreement, another possibility is that the EB will not recommend the proposal, but will allow the pilot group the final say in accepting or rejecting the Company’s bottom line. In other words, this is your contract, your job, your pilot group—any final decision will be yours. This timeline will require an agreement, if any, to be submitted to the group no later than the end of March.
The IPA is now entering a critical time in our history. Up until now, it has mainly been about how much more can we build our contract and grow our ranks. Along the way, we have faced defining moments. The Teamster strike of 1997 was an example. In the face of adversity, the true character of the group emerged. We took good care of each other, and dealt with the Company in a unified fashion. We will do no less now.
Now is not the time for us to break into competing groups and become champions of narrow individual interests. Now is the time for the group to coalesce as never before. Now is an opportunity for us to show our true character as professional airmen and women. We will protect our jobs. We will protect our contract. We will protect each other.
No doubt the coming weeks will bring hundreds of rumors and wild speculation. As a Board, we will be transparent, forthright, and we will stay in close communication with the group. Beginning today, we have an FAQ page operational on the IPA web site. Members may direct their questions to jobpreservationatipapilot.org. Your questions will also be answered by the EB in a roundtable discussion internet broadcast to be posted no later than Wednesday evening. Additionally, we are in the process of activating our Family Awareness program to provide support to crewmembers and their families throughout this period.
Of course much of our time as a Board and IPA staff will be spent preparing for and participating in the mid-March discussions with UPS. Please be patient with us and please rely on official Association communications only. The EB welcomes your calls, but keep in mind that having 2,900 individual conversations will take away from our ability to fully analyze and question the Company’s numbers and logic. Instead, consider going to the source by e-mailing in your questions. We will answer them and post them on the FAQ page for everyone else to see. Most importantly, be alert for rumors and refuse to pass them on. A rich environment has been created for rumors, wrong information, and even disinformation.
Finally, let’s remain professional. This pilot group is a tremendous asset for UPS. We spent much of the meeting outlining these facts that the Company did not dispute. We will continue to maintain that high standard of professionalism. In the event of a furlough announcement (which could take place June 1 at the earliest), the Company fully understands that we have the contractual right to then and only then, engage in an open time ban. We are not there yet, and that is why the March discussions are an important opportunity for us to avoid a furlough and protect our contract at the same time.
Again, the entire Board looks forward to discussing these events and taking your questions. Until then, fly safe, be professional, and remain united.
This is Bob Miller with an important message from the IPA Executive Board.
In a meeting held with UPS officials, the Executive Board was informed that the Company—as part of a company-wide cost cutting initiative—is considering the furlough of up to three hundred (300) IPA members. According to the Company, we would be given the contractually required 90 days of written notice on June 1. This furlough notice would, at the same time, include the publication of a system bid. It is through this bid that UPS would implement the furlough ninety days later, on September 1.
As we have stated in the past, if we receive a legally required written furlough notice, we will, at that time, but not before, call for an open time ban as would be our contractual right after receiving the notice on June 1.
With regard to staffing, we believe the Company should reconsider and allow IPA to operate the CGN-IST-TLV route. The transfer of this route back to IPA would require six crews. We have the lift, the bi-lateral rights, and people to return to flying this route. Finally, conducting a furlough makes no sense to us under any circumstances with 200 plus UPS flight qualified supervisors on the property.
As part of any possible furlough announcement, the Company is considering—but has made no final decision—accelerating the retirement of the DC-8s. We learned last week that the Company has already so-called “idled” twelve (12) B-757s, and may idle a number of additional 757s. This means the aircraft are available, but are not scheduled on specified routes. The Company further confirmed the planned removal of a significant number of block hours from the overall fleet plan for 2009.
In this message I want to outline some background leading up to the meeting, details of the meeting itself, and, most importantly, I want to outline for you the very aggressive plan the Executive Board has adopted to meet this crisis head on. Before doing that, the Board wants to lay down two basic principles that we have unanimously agreed will guide our actions from this point forward in dealing with these developments.
First, every IPA member from the most senior to the most junior is equally important to the unity and strength of our organization. No member or class of members is expendable. Every member represents a family. We will fight for every single member and every pilot family on the seniority list. We will work hard to avoid a furlough. We will protect our jobs.
Second, while we believe that the global economic crisis is real and has reduced the short-term profitability of UPS, we believe the cost cutting initiative announced is really about shoring up an already strong balance sheet. Said another way, the Company remains profitable and the survival of UPS is not at issue by any measure. In fact, we believe the Company is well poised to dominate over its competitors and return to increased profitability as conditions improve. We will not be stampeded or frightened into a round of concessionary bargaining that we do not believe is needed under current conditions. We will protect our contract.
Having outlined these two principles-- protecting our jobs and protecting our contract-- we are confronted by a Company that says it will, after all, consider not furloughing if, in fact, we can come up with $54 million in annual savings—roughly the savings they project that would be realized by furloughing 300 crewmembers including salary and benefits.
You can clearly see the nice package that has been laid on our doorstep by the Company. We can spend time being frustrated, angry, or we can roll-up our sleeves and get to work creating options that will both protect our jobs and our contract. The Executive Board is focusing on the later.
And now for some background. Up until now, UPS consistently claimed to have no need to furlough pilots, and we took them at their word. As recently as mid-February, we conveyed this message in general membership meetings. In fairness, the Company’s claims were, however, always qualified with cautions that the Company would continue to monitor the economic realities of the business and that the furloughing would remain an option. For our part, we extracted a pledge that the Company would come to us well in advance of any proposed furlough. They have done that.
Against this backdrop, the Executive Board has been busy behind the scenes preparing for this contingency. We have a well considered plan and it has many aspects. Here are the basic components of the IPA plan:
Fight the Logic of any Proposed Furlough. From the Company’s business perspective, we believe a furlough is not in the best interest of the Company for several reasons. First, the true costs of conducting such a furlough may not be properly understood. Training and moving costs will be tremendous. Second, in 18 to 24 months, at the very time we will have a tremendous pilot retirement wave, this is the same time most economists are forecasting an economic rebound. Does it really make sense to put people on the street now that the Company will need to bring back in a short 18 to 24 months?
Challenge Staffing Assumptions. Next, what would be the true cost of schedules built with 300 fewer pilots on property to fly them? We’ve already seen a premature shift in transferring flying from the DC-8 to the A-300. Schedules on the A-300 are being built so tight that we believe service will suffer and hidden costs will emerge.
We are bringing more than rhetoric to this argument. We have heavily invested in a staffing analysis. We have agreed with the Company to put our staffing and scheduling experts together to work through all the numbers. This process has already started. The bottom line is that we are prepared to question the very notion that a furlough is needed. We think a furlough would be costly both in economic terms and in a human toll that is unacceptable.
Identify Cost Savings. We are not opposed to identifying ways to generate cost savings for the Company. We think a number of ideas hold promise and we will be putting them forward in meetings to be held with the Company beginning on March 11. These ideas range from crewmembers taking the initiative to cancel hotel rooms that will not be used to incentives for voluntary early retirements.
Although we are no doubt “hourly workers,” pilots actually manage complex and costly operations on a daily basis. Are there ways to target and identify savings in how we do our job that are not adverse to the interests of safety? We believe so and we have a number of ideas that we will present to the Company with the idea of saving costs and preventing a furlough.
Link Savings to Furlough Protection. A third aspect of our plan is to link any cost savings to ensuring that people are not furloughed. We are not prepared to save the Company money and then see them turn around and conduct a furlough anyway. Any cost savings would “snap back” in the event a furlough would be announced.
So how do we plan to move forward? As mentioned, our numbers experts will continue meeting with their Company counterparts this week. The Executive Board will meet with the Company starting March 11 in sessions that could go through later in March. The goal will be to come up with a mutually agreed to plan that will protect our jobs and protect our contract.
Now for some hard questions. What if we cannot reach agreement on a plan that will prevent a furlough through voluntary savings plans alone? What if the Company will only stop their furlough plan in exchange for temporary, but real economic changes to the contract?
Obviously, these questions are speculative and we hope to produce other options. However, the Executive Board wants to be very clear with the membership. Any agreement that would change the contract—short of voluntary incentive programs—would absolutely require a vote of the membership.
Any proposed agreement would be provided to the membership with a full thirty (30) day study/discussion period followed by a full thirty (30) day voting period. The proposed agreement might be recommended by the EB for passage. Absent mutual agreement, another possibility is that the EB will not recommend the proposal, but will allow the pilot group the final say in accepting or rejecting the Company’s bottom line. In other words, this is your contract, your job, your pilot group—any final decision will be yours. This timeline will require an agreement, if any, to be submitted to the group no later than the end of March.
The IPA is now entering a critical time in our history. Up until now, it has mainly been about how much more can we build our contract and grow our ranks. Along the way, we have faced defining moments. The Teamster strike of 1997 was an example. In the face of adversity, the true character of the group emerged. We took good care of each other, and dealt with the Company in a unified fashion. We will do no less now.
Now is not the time for us to break into competing groups and become champions of narrow individual interests. Now is the time for the group to coalesce as never before. Now is an opportunity for us to show our true character as professional airmen and women. We will protect our jobs. We will protect our contract. We will protect each other.
No doubt the coming weeks will bring hundreds of rumors and wild speculation. As a Board, we will be transparent, forthright, and we will stay in close communication with the group. Beginning today, we have an FAQ page operational on the IPA web site. Members may direct their questions to jobpreservationatipapilot.org. Your questions will also be answered by the EB in a roundtable discussion internet broadcast to be posted no later than Wednesday evening. Additionally, we are in the process of activating our Family Awareness program to provide support to crewmembers and their families throughout this period.
Of course much of our time as a Board and IPA staff will be spent preparing for and participating in the mid-March discussions with UPS. Please be patient with us and please rely on official Association communications only. The EB welcomes your calls, but keep in mind that having 2,900 individual conversations will take away from our ability to fully analyze and question the Company’s numbers and logic. Instead, consider going to the source by e-mailing in your questions. We will answer them and post them on the FAQ page for everyone else to see. Most importantly, be alert for rumors and refuse to pass them on. A rich environment has been created for rumors, wrong information, and even disinformation.
Finally, let’s remain professional. This pilot group is a tremendous asset for UPS. We spent much of the meeting outlining these facts that the Company did not dispute. We will continue to maintain that high standard of professionalism. In the event of a furlough announcement (which could take place June 1 at the earliest), the Company fully understands that we have the contractual right to then and only then, engage in an open time ban. We are not there yet, and that is why the March discussions are an important opportunity for us to avoid a furlough and protect our contract at the same time.
Again, the entire Board looks forward to discussing these events and taking your questions. Until then, fly safe, be professional, and remain united.
03-02-2009, 02:40 PM
#8
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Nov 2005
Position: CA 767
Posts: 402
I'll go along with whatever the membership says, But I am surprised the EB would suggest changing our Contract we have fought for over so many years.
In regards to lowering our pay, that is not a good road to go down. We'll show the company our bottom line for the future and once something is given, it is almost impossible to get back.
so with regards to a lower guarantee or pay, it aint getting my vote. I will not dilute our Contract.
In regards to lowering our pay, that is not a good road to go down. We'll show the company our bottom line for the future and once something is given, it is almost impossible to get back.
so with regards to a lower guarantee or pay, it aint getting my vote. I will not dilute our Contract.
03-02-2009, 02:44 PM
#9
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: May 2006
Posts: 983
Originally Posted by Nashmd11
I'll go along with whatever the membership says, But I am surprised the EB would suggest changing our Contract we have fought for over so many years.
In regards to lowering our pay, that is not a good road to go down. We'll show the company our bottom line for the future and once something is given, it is almost impossible to get back.
so with regards to a lower guarantee or pay, it aint getting my vote. I will not dilute our Contract.
In regards to lowering our pay, that is not a good road to go down. We'll show the company our bottom line for the future and once something is given, it is almost impossible to get back.
so with regards to a lower guarantee or pay, it aint getting my vote. I will not dilute our Contract.
03-02-2009, 02:46 PM
#10
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Dec 2005
Position: Leftof longitudinal
Posts: 1,899
Originally Posted by brownie
Company just annonced that it will furlogh 300 pilots by sep 1st.
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