Received this in the inbox just now. Good luck to everyone affected. Been there, done that and its no fun. Hang in there.
USNewsNow: Staffing Reductions: An Important Message from Chief Operating Officer Robert Isom
January 11, 2011
Dear Fellow Employees,
I am writing this afternoon to share with you some information about the need to make staffing reductions at 11 stations. While we normally wait until after the affected employees are notified to make these types of announcements, we felt we should clarify and share the news with everyone in light of circulating rumors and the resulting uneasiness they have created.
The reductions, which affect 54 airport customer service and 122 fleet service employees, are occurring in Boston, Buffalo, Burbank, El Paso, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Memphis, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Rochester and San Jose. These changes mean approximately 175 airport customer service and fleet service employees will have the option to move to other locations across our system or move to a furloughed status. At this time there are sufficient openings throughout the system so that all impacted employees can move to different locations and continue in their active status if they so desired.
This difficult decision was driven by several factors. These include reduced flying in specific markets as a result of schedule adjustments, significantly low attrition rates resulting in overstaffing in some stations, and the discontinuance of mainline employees handling ramp functions for Express flying at two mainline stations.
Because this news comes early in the year and at a time when the airline industry is operating profitably sends a confusing message, so I want to take a moment to explain. Each year, and throughout the year, we regularly adjust flying which creates changes in the staffing needed to handle our flight schedule. In years past, normal attrition rates (people leaving US Airways permanently) meant we wouldn’t have extra people on the payroll as we shifted that flying around. Today that simply isn’t the case given the economic conditions of the past few years. People are postponing retirement and working longer for their current employer. Also, people who used to leave one employer, US Airways for instance, to transition to another company or job are no longer doing so; rather they’re choosing to stay where they are. Both of these factors have contributed to overstaffing in cities where flights have been reduced, and this overstaffing creates unnecessary costs that we simply can’t continue to absorb.
While US Airways is performing well today, this comes after two years of significant losses. Our economy remains in an extremely fragile position. We have to constantly look for ways to operate efficiently with the goal of stable employment for as many of our employees as economically possible.
We will do our best to minimize the impact this action imposes on our colleagues. Meetings are currently being held in some locations today and others will be held throughout the day tomorrow at the affected stations where specific employee impact will be discussed. Those who are directly affected by this announcement will be receiving options as outlined in their collective bargaining agreements very soon, and company representatives will also be on hand in the coming days to provide more information.
We appreciate the contributions to US Airways everyone has made over the years and especially those made by the people who are affected by the changes we are announcing today. Thank you for all that you are doing to take care of our customers.
Sincerely,
Robert