COMAIR knock-on effect
From a colleague stateside:
Comair announced today that the duration of the strike by its pilot group has forced it to move forward with layoffs of its valued employees. Approximately 2,000 positions will be affected in all departments, based on current operational demands.
The last day of work for affected employees will be May 13, 2001. During the layoff, pay, health and travel benefits will be suspended. Supervisors and managers began notifying affected employees today. Presently, there are approximately 4,000 non-striking employees. Half of those individuals will be affected by these layoffs.
"These pilots think they are Gods." said one disgruntled employee who had continued working in Comair's administrative department. "They are driven by pure greed and arrogance and have no concern for anyone else."
"Unfortunately, with no revenue coming in for 33 days now, the economic reality has set in and we are forced to take these regrettable, but necessary steps," said Randy Rademacher, president of Comair. "We have been able to pay our people in full with benefits for seven weeks. That's unprecedented for a company of our size, but we simply could not sustain it any longer."
Comair will make state employment representatives available to all affected employees. Comair employees will be called back to work as an operational need for their position again exists.
"I want to extend my sincere thanks to Comair employees for their years of service to this airline, in particular their hard work and support during this situation," Rademacher said. "The people our employees have touched through recent community service projects are raving about their hard work. We already know how great all of our people are, and when this is all over we hope to see each and every one of them again as we rebuild our airline together."
Comair pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association have been on strike since March 26, 2001. All Comair flights are now canceled through 9:00 a.m. Sunday, May 27, 2001.