Freightpuppy

UPS to Begin Furloughing Pilots Sunday (Business First, May 19)

UPS Airlines, a division of United Parcel Service Inc., will furlough 54 pilots Sunday, the first of 300 pilots slated to be grounded in an attempt by the shipper to cut costs and streamline its operations.

Earlier this year, Atlanta-based UPS (NYSE: UPS) announced it would furlough the pilots after it failed to reach an agreement with the Independent Pilots Association on cost-cutting measures that would have preserved at least some of the jobs.

About 170 more pilots are expected to be let go by the end of the year. The remaining 76 will be let go sometime in 2011, said Patti Hobbs, strategic communications manager for Louisville-based UPS Airlines.

“This is a very tough and painful business decision,” Hobbs said.

UPS says move prompted by recession, fewer aircraft

She added that the airline was forced to reduce its staff because it has retired some of its older aircraft. UPS now flies 214 company-owned aircraft, compared with 262 at its peak in 2003, Hobbs said.

By getting rid of its fleet of Boeing 727, DC-8 and some older 747 aircraft, UPS eliminated the need for 400 pilots.

About 100 of the crew members were retrained to work on other aircraft, but at the average cost of $185,000 per year in pay in benefits, the company decided it couldn’t afford to keep all of them on the payroll, Hobbs said.




It's a business decision....I get it. Tough and painful for them? Uh, don't think so. If it was, they would go out of their way to make the MOU work and they wouldn't leave a bunch of pilots hanging (ie. not giving furlough dates).

Keeping someone on the payroll when you don't need them vs. can't afford them are two different things. GMAFB! I just want to slap some of these people sometimes.

JustUnderPar

Yes FP I agree with you I want to vomit....oh wait....... I just did.

Whew...missed my key board

b2pilot186

It just kills me when the company trots this figure out, trying to make the bottom 300 look like they're being paid this huge amount of money. The reality is that most of them have been on half-base-pay (around $65,000) for a year now because of RDG, job shares or leaves of absence. To top it all off, UPS is shafting them again by not paying for a move back stateside from Alaska. Not anywhere near the big-time, rich pilots that UPS tries to make the out to be...UPS pilots may not get a lot of sympathy from the general public, but UPS itself will get even less sympathy as it rakes in hundreds of millions in profit while dumping pilots, mechanics and their families overboard in this economy...all to make that bottom line look a little better. Nice.

B2P

furloughman

Some of us will fortunately be going back to Delta as they recall this month... and we'll all pretend this UPS nightmare never occurred!

Jetjok

furloughman,

In a few months, when you're operating a redeye for Delta, and the captain goes off about how awful it is there, you'll have some really great stories to tell him. See, it was all worth it.

JJ

UPSFO4LIFE

Good for you!! I am really glad things will work out for some.

Shaggy1970

Anyone the number to that truck driving school! I am going back to school to become a doctor! Wish I had made better choices about 15 years ago! Who knew the airline industry would be one step above working at burger king?

JustUnderPar

First time a profitable airline has furloughed pilots.

See. They can lead the industry in something. Who said these guys were a bunch of backwards country bumpkins......

Fishfreighter

JUP,

Now they're MORE profitable. Remember you have to maximize shareholder value!

FliFast

Two of the reasons that the MOU failed and was not agressively renewed were:

1. Senior pilots complained that the MOU took good trips and filtered them to the VTO / RDG lines..thus creating an abrogation of seniority. In simple terms, senior pilots wanted first choice at the best trips and didn't feel trips left over for the RDG and from VTO should go to the VTO/RDG lines, which were predominantly held by junior pilots.

And "No", I'm not smart enough to invent this. This was told to me by our EB, ask them if you need to validate this.

2. Paper savings vs. Actual savings
In ANC there was 99% participation for the MOU. Unfortunately with 99% of the ANC F/Os (bottom 300 essentially minus the DC8 F/Es) the company was unable to fly its' schedule. Thus they were JA-ing and asking pilots that were signed up for the RDG to bid full lines.

Paper savings-yes. Actual saving-not as much as planned.

So, as we furlough our first 54 brothers and sisters this Sunday, it is difficult by nature, but obscene given the fact the company is significantly profitable and other solutions were possible but discarded.

FF