US Airways to cut 280 jobs
PITTSBURGH (AP) – US Airways will close many of its specialty maintenance shops, eliminating about 280 jobs in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, the bankrupt airline said. The job cuts are part of a larger game of musical chairs, as the carrier shifts jobs and consolidates facilities in an effort to increase efficiency and cut costs before emerging from bankruptcy. Since reaching agreements on wage and job cuts last week with several key unions, the airline has announced a series of moves affecting facilities now located in Pittsburgh and Charlotte, N.C.
The specialty maintenance cuts are allowed under a contract ratified last week by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. US Airways spokesman David Castelveter said Thursday that workers were told this week that their positions will be abolished by the end of March.
Affected are 150 Charlotte workers, 80 in Pittsburgh and 50 in Winston-Salem, N.C., Castelveter said. The work will be sent to outside vendors, he said.
Meanwhile, the airline reportedly plans to move all its Airbus heavy maintenance work to a facility near Pittsburgh International Airport. But the airline also may close two Pittsburgh hangars that could result in the loss of hundreds of jobs, workers said.
Castelveter declined to comment on those reports.
“The company is still conducting a thorough analysis of how best to distribute those resources,” he told The Associated Press on Friday.
In Charlotte, where US Airways has a hub, shops that perform work on wheels and brakes, flight controls, avionics, lavatories, emergency slides, accessories and calibration are to be closed. Displaced workers can apply for jobs in other maintenance facilities, Castelveter said.
Bill Wise, a mechanic and president of the Machinists union’s Charlotte local, said he was saddened to see the airline close shops that are reliable and cost-efficient.
“I don’t believe anybody’s going to be able to do it any cheaper or more efficiently than we do it now,” he said.
Union officials briefed on the airline’s plans in Pittsburgh said that moving the Airbus maintenance work there could save 600 jobs, but that as many as 600 jobs will be lost when the airline closes hydraulic, electric and instrument shops.
Anthony Pica, a mechanic who has worked for the airline for 15 years, said he was told by union officials that anyone hired after 1986 could lose his job.
“These guys are squeezing us down to the very minimum,” he said.
While Pittsburgh gains Airbus work, it could lose heavy maintenance work on Boeing 737 airplanes. That work may be shifted to Charlotte and Alabama, union officials said.
A little more than half of US Airways’ 281-jet fleet is made up of Boeing aircraft, but industry experts say that the airline is moving to incorporate more Airbus jets.
Officials with the Machinists union said they could not confirm details being cited by workers.
“It doesn’t mean the (mechanics) are wrong,” said union spokesman Joseph Tiberi. “All I can say is that we have not been officially notified yet.”
The airline on Wednesday said it would consolidate its reservations centers in Winston-Salem, a move that will keep hundreds of jobs in North Carolina but will mean the loss of more than 800 jobs in Pennsylvania.
AP-ES-01-28-05 1202EST