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StumbleuponABX Air pilots press for severance pay
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The union for ABX Air pilots is pressing the company for an agreement to provide severance pay to pilots who lose their jobs as DHL reduces the cargo-flying work it assigns to ABX from Wilmington.
"I'd like to have it before my first guys receive furlough notices, which will be Monday," said Dave Ross, president of Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, which represents about 650 ABX pilots. "I don't think that's going to happen."
ABX reached agreement with DHL last weekend on a deal to provide severance and retention pay for ABX employees. Those workers will either be laid off or encouraged to stay on while DHL further reduces the cargo sorting and flying work it gives ABX at DHL's U.S. air freight hub at Wilmington. DHL has said it plans to hire United Parcel Service to handle its cargo sorting and transport from UPS' hub at Louisville, Ky., which could wipe out at least 8,200 Wilmington jobs by the end of 2009.
ABX has said that about 200 employees will be told Monday that they will be out of jobs 60 days later because of DHL's cost-cutting plan. Most of the employees who will be let go will be aircraft maintenance personnel, but some pilots and administrative employees will also lose their jobs, ABX said. The company is accepting voluntary departures this week to try and reduce the number of layoffs.
The pilots' contract with ABX does not provide for severance. ABX and DHL agreed, however, that it is fair to offer severance to the pilots along with nonunion ABX employees, said John Graber, president of ABX.
"Now we have to sit down with our pilots and negotiate for that — hear what they want, and respond," Graber said Thursday.
But because ABX and the pilots' union were already in federal mediation to try and reach a new collective bargaining agreement to replace the current 2006 version, the severance issue negotiations may have to go through the mediation process also, Graber said. No mediation sessions are scheduled prior to Monday, he said.
Pilots notified next week that they are to be laid off could be eligible for any severance agreement reached later, Graber said.
The pilots want something similar to the severance offer given to other ABX employees, Ross said. ABX's offer to its other employees includes severance pay of two weeks for their first full year of service and one week for each additional full year, plus health benefits through the severance period.
Pilots for ASTAR Air Cargo, the other airline that flies DHL cargo domestically from Wilmington, are represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. That union, representing about 500 pilots, has sued ASTAR to allege that the DHL cutbacks will violate the pilots' contract that guarantees them certain amounts of work. Seth Horwitz, a spokesman for ASTAR, did not return a call requesting a response on Thursday.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
