UPS plans fewer pilot layoffs than planned, but outsourcing suspected

EXPRESS delivery giant United Parcel Service (UPS) has said it will layoff 230 pilots nationwide instead of the 300 pilots originally planned because of an increase in air cargo shipments to Asia, reported the Anchorage Daily News.

But Anchorage expects to suffer disproportionally because it is at the centre of the layoffs with junior pilots going first. The company is replacing them with senior pilots from other UPS bases outside Alaska.

On one hand, UPS said it will add 50 more pilots to Anchorage by the end of this year because of the rebounding Asian economy. That would bring the number of UPS pilots "assigned" to the Anchorage's international airport to its highest level ever - about 550.

On the other hand, union officials of the International Pilots Association say the senior UPS pilots in the Lower 48 do not plan to live in Alaska and can commute to fulfil the demands of their assigned base of operations.

UPS pilots are among Anchorage's highest-paid workers and the cutbacks announcement came at a time when the local economy wobbled in the global recession. Anchorage Mayor Dan Sullivan and Alaska congressional delegation members pleaded with UPS in recent months to reconsider the Anchorage layoffs.

The Alaska House Committee on Transportation has scheduled an August 31 hearing in Anchorage. Anchorage Republican state representative and committee co-chairman, Craig Johnson, said he's been hearing a lot of mixed messages about the job losses.

Concern that the replacement pilots will be based in Anchorage but not live here prompted a sharp complaint from US Democratic Senator Mark Begich who told UPS in a letter that it is "outsourcing jobs."

UPS disputes that it is outsourcing: 25 of the replacement pilots it has assigned to Alaska have asked for relocation money, the company says. "There could be more to come," said a UPS spokesman.
(Source:www.schednet.com)