ASA furloughs 80 pilots

[ASA_Aviator]

The company handled this very poorly. There are better ways to prepare people for layoff. The communications from management during the last few months did not indicate a sudden and abrupt furlough notification was imminent. Same old pricks...

That's not true. Every time Scott Hall was asked, he hinted that it was definitely on the table, stopping just short of saying that it was happening. The management team has done as much as they can to avoid furlough, and certainly aren't happy about this.

I just hope it doesn't last long.

 

[flyboyzz1]

Sorry to hear such bad news. Guess I am on deck on the skywest side of things...

 

[OCP]

I thought they had to send WARN letters out first?

 

[JumpersAway]

We signed the contract and stabilized costs.
We conserve significant amounts of fuel.
We turned around the company's operational performance.
We are number 1 in customer satisfaction among Delta Carriers.
We busted our asses.

They have increased the costs of our medical benefits while decreasing the coverage.
They have shrunk our fleet.
They increased our dues for non-rev travel.
Now they want to lay off our employees.

What's next? What else can we do for you?

Not much "they" are accountable for on that list. Dirty D has an awfull lot to do with it though. This has been bright as the sun since the announcement of the merger. There wasn't going to be any net growth out of it- you don't merge to grow, you do it to trim capacity and gain market share.

As far as travel privelages, what else would you expect from a company that sent out dumpster diving guides while in bankruptcy? Mr. Steinland at NW had a lot to do with that, and now he's over "helping" lead the team at Delta.

So far, I'd have to say our management team has done an outstanding job of padding us from the effects of the industry. There are a whole lot of people out there at airlines that have it way worse than we do.

Personally, I truly hate to see this happen. It etches a chapter into company history that we've not seen before, and frankly, took great pride in knowing. Our company has NEVER furloughed a pilot, and that is no longer the case. Hopefully it's short, and not too painful for those affected. Good luck.

Perhaps it would be helpful if those pilots in the know with possible job openings could post job leads on the ALPA web boards. Hopefully someone will get something good out of it, even if it's not industry related, for a while.

 

[Smacktard]

The company handled this very poorly. There are better ways to prepare people for layoff. The communications from management during the last few months did not indicate a sudden and abrupt furlough notification was imminent. Same old pricks...

Oh for F's sake, give me a break. You think posting it so it can get quoted on FI before each guy is called personally is handling it well? You don't think COMAs, Volutary Furloughs etc hasn't been notice?

 

[HoserASA]

ASA did about everything they could do in an attempt to prevent this. Offering COMA lines, reducing lineholder hours etc etc. I really don't fault the company. I think everyone honestly realized it was coming. And the company waited until AFTER the holidays. Most companies swing the ax right before Christmas to start off the new year without those employees.

Hoser
ROLL TIDE!

 

[701EV]

Here's how we can fix this!

1. We all take a 30% paycut.
2. Give back the Duty Rig ( cost is high for ASA)
3. Agree to whatever PBS they want (cost then goes down)
4. No more downtown hotels (SH will stop complaining about hotel costs)
5. We give Delta 2% of our pay check to keep our cost down.
6. We pay for our own Health care.

If we do all of these things we will be the lowest costing DCI operator. Then we can under cut every DCI operator out thier. Delta will give ASA all of the DCI flying, our block our will go up. We will get all of the CRJ's, maybe the EMB's too. Then the lines will go back to 90hrs of block and over 100hrs of credit. Based on all of the flying our pay checks will go up.

701EV

 

[sunlitpath]

While you are drinking your Koolaid... Management should have used language such as. "Furloughs are highly likely" or "Furloughs should be expected in January". Instead of weak and nebulous suggestions that the economy is bad. I wonder how long ASA management knew this coming. If they found out last week, that is understandable, but I suspect this decision was made many weeks ago. For furloughed pilots, it's like a disease. The earlier they know the condition, the more time they have to prepare and recover from it. I could care less about your fat asses, sitting around all cozy while gainfully employed.

 

[ASA_Aviator]

I could care less about your fat asses, sitting around all cozy while gainfully employed.

That's too bad, because a lot of people do care about those that are going to be furloughed. I guess it's all about you...

And management has made plenty of announcements that made it apparent this was coming. When management offered the voluntary furloughs, was that not enough for you? In what world does that not scream, "Prepare for the worst"?

You need management to tell you when it is time to take a leak too?

 

[Texx]

I thought they had to send WARN letters out first?

Section 23.