incorporating UK EMPLOYEE FORUMUPS may lay off at least 300 pilots
| 11 February 2010
Atlanta-based UPS said the layoffs would involve about 11 percent of its 2,800 pilots, starting in May. (John Sommers Ii/Reuters/ File 2009)
DALLAS - United Parcel Service Inc., the world’s largest package delivery company, plans to furlough as least 300 pilots unless it can find more savings in a joint effort with the employees’ union.
The layoffs would involve about 11 percent of its 2,800 pilots, starting in May, the Atlanta-based company said yesterday. UPS already is cutting 1,800 small-package jobs.
UPS is preparing to trim the pilot ranks after the company and the Independent Pilots Association in June avoided layoffs with an agreement for $131 million in labor concessions over three years. Efforts to find more ways to reduce expenses have failed, UPS said yesterday in a statement. Talks with the union are continuing, the company said.
“Even though the economy has begun to turn around, UPS anticipates a very gradual recovery and a continued need for belt-tightening,’’ Bob Lekites, the president of UPS Airlines, said in the statement. “This is a painful decision for our people, but one that is right for the ongoing health of our business.’
UPS in January said it would cut 1,800 jobs as it shrinks US operating districts in its small-package unit, its largest division.
The company last week reported fourth-quarter net income of $757 million on sales of $12.4 billion.