Delta will lay off 741 ground employees at DTW in April

[eolesen]

If they're going public with this 90 days in advance, it's probably safe to say a WARN letter was issued.

 

[AirlineKid]

I feel bad for all the DGS people.  I wish the work was being taken over by actual DL employees.

 

[topDawg]

Some cost-cutting at Detroit:
 
 
 
 
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140214/BIZ/302140103#ixzz2tLJpAD5C

 
vendor change at Delta? no never!! 

Well, these are some more of the DL workers who decided that they didn't need anything a union could provide. At will workers are at will workers. Though it would be interesting to know if there are any DGS employees left at DTW.  I mean other than the supervisors who will be overseeing the Prospect and Menzies work.

I'm sorry but what? 
good lord, the more you union heads post the more I completely and totally understand how your in the cockpit with management flying labor right into the ground. 
jeesh. 
 

ye a






yep you are an a**hole. these are people that work for delta that are BEING laid off so delta can feel good about giving their contractors a dollar an hour raise to $10.00 an hour. its clear Delta is gutting its own workforce for contractors at $9.00 an hour. people like you get me sick.

 
Not they aren't. they work for DGS. Its just a vendor shift.....and IIRC its the 4th or 5th one post merger for these jobs. 

sure chief delude your self all day long. delta has been screwing their empoloyees since ron allen and his 7.5 plan. maybe if your lucky you will get the opportunity to get outsourced. couldn't happen to a nicer guy

I'm sorry, but you are an AA person right?
hi, thanks for all your help, but your lovely unions have do just as great of a job as killing us as management. Every single time you guys give something up, Delta looks at taking it away from its employees too. 
 
in other words, I would toss to many stones glass house. 
 

I think the idea that many of the DGS employees will simply shift over to Prospect or Menzies is a bit assumptive. Neither offer flight benefits, which may or may not have been what was keeping some people around. Guess we'll see.

It's also interesting that on one hand there is a huge push to get DCI standards (customer service, operational, etc.) up to mainline levels, yet on the other, a step backward in a case like this. Seems like both initiatives run counter to one another. Further, if it's a performance issue, then banking on hiring back the same exact people doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

At any rate, I think dropping this bomb while everyone was distracted with PS celebrations was either really tacky or intentional. Maybe both...

It was tacky, I would be completely shocked if for than 10% of the ramp employees even gave half a crap. 5% or less had the thought of, "these should be mainline jobs anyways" 
 
and company wide, i'd guess that less than 2-3% gave a crap. The bulk that noticed just said "how does it help me" or "glad its not me" 
very few saw it for what it really was. Just another vendor switch for what should be mainline. Delta loves it.......now how long till they bring in contractors from Mexico........?
 

When Menzies took over the ramp for AS at SEA, it was a disaster, lost bags, damaged planes and poor on-time performance.

You know AS is one of the better airlines in DOT stats IIRC.  
 

2 times for dtw...  for mechanics  and now dgs rampers etc wow  how much longer til delta destroys dtw similar to other cities...
 
wait   wt will find a way to defend that too

 
....not that I'm going to take up for WT here but if ail to see what any of this has to do with flight levels? The jobs are being replaced on the ramp, just with another vendor. 
the line jobs Also have little to do with overall flight levels. Its all about ground time, and my understanding is DTW just doesn't have enough aircraft on the ground to justify the staffing they had. 

Sure about that? That is US' #1 profitable hub

 
and AS has some of the best, if not the best margins in the industry and has been the best investment (if you must invest in airlines) behind DAL/LUV
 
I don't think I would go down that road boss. AS has made it very clear that having in-house ramp isn't needed. 
I think its smarter to talk about how your "brothers" at your God's union (the IAM) just might have also pissed in-house ramp away for that airline. (something I'm sure your company and Delta will look to fallow. So thanks, again.) 

Kev on a somewhat related note what is your sense of the AS ground handling agreement ending the end of this month? I can't imaging the revenue from AS for a single or couple departures make or break the viability keeping stations staffed, but I can't imagine losing the work is a good thing. Aparently in BOS DL will still handle AS on an interim basis pose 2/28/14 perhaps that is the case at other stations too.

Josh

 
shouldn't make any difference. I mean at most we are talking 3-4 flights a day at the bulk of the stations. 

I feel bad for all the DGS people.  I wish the work was being taken over by actual DL employees.

and FINALLY someone says it. 

 

[topDawg]

I agree with almost every point you have made, Kev.

Not sure how you see this as a backwards step, though. How does a change in contractor run counter to improving standards? Menzies runs AS' contracted ramp and Prospect handles other functions for DL.

Also, a management change could very well change how the workforce is managed. Hard to imangine that DL could not have done that with DGS but it highlights that just like AE, DGS does not have guaranteed access to its parent's work.

The most likely reduction in overall costs comes from people who just began to see some wage progression at DGS and are now whacked back to the bottom or forced to leave. As I noted in my first post on this thread, I find that disgusting but also note that it has happened to regional carrier employees multiple times in their relationships with their legacy carriers.

the timing stunk, plain and simple

No one has mentioned in all of this that DTW is DLs largest 50 seat operation. With an expected fleet of only 125 50 seaters left in the DCI fleet in the near future, there will have to be a restructuring of operations to reduce frequencies or else add a whole lot of capacity at DTW if 50 seaters are replaced by CR7s and up the line. Perhaps the plan is to keep the majority of 50 seat flying at DTW in order to reduce the impact on the hub but DTW still has a fairly high level of 50 seat flying relative to other hubs - and also explains why it was necessary to get as much of that connecting flying out of CVG and MEM and push it over DTW.

some markets will see more capacity but I am betting that DL will rework the bank structure at DTW to reduce the need to increase capacity from DTW to alot of RJ cities, esp. since DTW and LGA/JFK duplicate some of the same flows.

the new contract could be part of a larger picture that isn't apparent to any of us yet.

ATL and DTW are within 10 flights of each other for 50 seat flying. 
 
Both of those hubs will still see a nice amount of 50 seat jets. SLC is going all F class (minus any at risk OO flying) 
sounds like JFK/LGA will also be mostly if not all F class. 
MSP/ATL/DTW/CVG will still see 50 seaters.