UAL plans 25% fewer pilots

[AAflyer]

cardinal,

Actually that number is accurate. 36 hours. I have a copy of the UAL bankruptcy report. Ours at AA is 39. DAL is at 45 hours according tothe numbers in the report.

Remember you also need to take into account vacations, sick days, personal vacation days, training days, and if you are clever enough( and lucky) touching trips to your vacation to get them dropped.

These are very unproductive numbers. I am all for great pay, but would prefer to be productive to help the company. Unfortunately to attain productive hours now would require many more furloughs.

Here are the numbers from the Informational Brief on the UAL Bankruptcy, put out by Kirkland and Ellis, they are counsel for the debtors and DIP.

UAL 36
AA 39
NW 40
DAL 45
Alaska 46
JetBlue 47
CAL 49
USAir 50
Frontier 50
Airtran 51
SWA 62

AAflyer

 

[DaveGriffin]

Here's an article from today's USA Today.

ALPA lawyers are soon going some of the few fully employed.

Since round II of the DL FM will soon be over, I guess they needed something new to work on.

Memo to counsel: Do not let Mr. Woerthe discuss the negative impact on the industry of the 11 Sept attacks.

30 Jan 2003

Pilots union blasts UAL plan
By Marilyn Adams, USA TODAY

Even before UAL has issued a reorganization plan, the airline company's proposal to create a low-fare carrier is prompting outrage from its powerful pilots union.The chairman of the Air Line Pilots Association on Wednesday blasted what he called "rumors" of a reorganization plan that he said could break up the airline in bankruptcy court.

Paul Whiteford, a United captain who is also a UAL director, said leaders of the union fear United's proposing to create a separate low-fare airline with a separate workforce and separate labor contract that could be "spun off" from UAL. The directors are scheduled Thursday to review United's preliminary reorganization plan.UAL, which has been a majority employee-owned company since 1994, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9."I'm more than willing to give United the tools it needs" to emerge from bankruptcy, Whiteford said in an interview. "But I won't have discussions about a separate airline that could be spun off. We will oppose management's breakup plan by every lawful means available to us."

The stinging remarks caught UAL executives by surprise. UAL hasn't released details of its plan. But the airline said in a statement Wednesday night that a low-fare carrier "integrated" into its network is critical to its future.

People familiar with the planning say UAL envisions a division or subsidiary with a separate brand, workforce and pay scale that would operate flights between leisure destinations, such as Orlando, and United's hub airports, such as Chicago O'Hare. Passengers could transfer to regular United flights.

It wasn't clear Wednesday whether United seeks a separate labor agreement with employees of the new low-fare unit to keep costs down.Whiteford criticized UAL for failing to negotiate a new contract with his union in a "meaningful" way. UAL responded it has held "dozens" of meetings and shared "thousands of pages" of documents with union leaders.

His angry tone was the most visible sign yet that labor and management aren't communicating or that UAL might not get the labor-contract concessions it wants without a court fight.Whiteford's statement comes just weeks after 92% of his members voted to take temporary 29% pay cuts to help United trim costs quickly in bankruptcy. The airline went to court to extract 14% pay cuts from members of its largest union, the International Association of Machinists, which refused to take voluntary cuts.

UAL has made clear it's willing to ask the bankruptcy court for permission to break its labor contracts if necessary. UAL executives have said that an initiative to address stiff competition from low-fare airlines must be a significant part of its business plan for survival. The discount unit, they have said, would fly Boeing 737s, like Southwest Airlines, and require lower labor costs than United's main line.

 

[Publishers]

UAL

Sometime ago I mentioned the difference in time for UAL to do what US already accomplished in BK.

Those that spread the call for a lengthy court fight will find themselves nowhere. This reflects what has been there all along, there is no relationship between management and labor.

That we need to fight attitude reflects a clear misunderstanding of the situation and alternatives that exists.

 

[pilotyip]

Remember

I posted this over 2 months ago, based upon a Unisys study UAL pilots were paid an average of 900 hours per year, and worked 427 hrs per yr, lowest productivity in majors, compared to 800 hours yr at SWA and 900 at JB. The UAL pilot force is not productive, UAL pilots need to fly close to 800hr/yr at a 29% pay cut to compete as LLC. They not have that many hours in thier schedules for all the pilots they have on the payroll, so they have to cut their pilots by 30%. If the UAL pilots fight this the way they did in 1999 or 2000 with their industry leading contract, the picture is not rosy. Remember when UAL folds and you tell the next potential employer you were a UAL pilot, they will not care. Ask the EAL, Braniff, Pam Am, Midway, etc guys, what they found out when the doors closed. The UAL pilots would be smart to offer even greater consessions than the company wants, boy am I glad I did not get hired there back in 96, but only in hind sight.