UPS May Furlough 300 Pilots. 

Feburary 9, 2010 

By Frances Fiorino

UPS yesterday said it may be forced to make a “painful decision” to furlough about 300 of its 2,800 pilots, starting in May, unless the carrier and the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) find joint solutions to averting the layoffs.

The carrier and the pilots union have been seeking ways to cut costs to avoid layoffs for more than a year, according to Louisville, Ky.-based UPS. The carrier agreed not to furlough pilots in 2009 after IPA last June identified cost savings in programs, such as voluntary short- and long-term leaves of absence, job sharing and cuts in flight pay guarantees.

Furloughs, should they become a necessity, will be staggered, with the first 170 UPS pilots scheduled to receive layoff notices in May.

The move, says UPS, would be one of the company’s many measures taken over the past two years “to match its resources to economic activity.” The company’s 2009 $1.4-billion initiative included a freeze on management salaries and retirement of older aircraft. And last month, it began streamlining its domestic small package structure, eliminating 1,800 management and administrative positions.