According to American Airlines spokesperson Tami McLallen, on Friday, Jan. 16, American Airlines will lay off 170 workers at its main overhaul base at Kansas City International Airport as part of a planned staff reduction.
Gordon Clark, president of the United Transportation Workers of America Union local 530 chapter, confirmed the layoffs and blamed the circumstances partly on the economy. “We’re going to have a layoff of about 150 people and they are being displaced just because of the downturn in the economy and the consolidation of the airline,” he said. “Most will be able to relocate to other locations in the American Airlines system if they choose to do so, but they’re still being displaced from their homes and their families. It’s still not a real comfortable situation. But that’s where we’re at.”American Airlines announced the culling of 1,500 jobs nationwide in July due to a fleet reduction, with 600 expected at the time to come out of Kansas City.Fortunately, Kansas City is expected to lose significantly fewer positions than the 600 jobs union officials predicted back in July, thanks to voluntary layoffs and the addition of new maintenance lines.After the July announcement of staff cuts, McLallen said the overhaul base had 250 workers leave through the voluntary program October through December, which significantly lowered the amount of workers the company had to lay off.The company also acquired two new 767 maintenance lines which allowed them to keep additional staff, McLallen said, but, ultimately, the company was still forced to cut staff due to the fleet reduction.“Obviously it will be difficult for folks who have worked in Kansas City and don’t want to move,” she said. “Fortunately, it’s not 600 people, it’s more like 170. We’re just reducing some of the maintenance work there and it’s tied to the fleet reduction and capacity reduction. That will leave us with 450 or so from the Transportation Workers of America Union with additional management and noncontract employees.”With the new maintenance lines in place through the first quarter of 2010, McLallen said things should remain stable at the overhaul base through the end of the year.Clark said the union and American Airlines are still actively searching for third-party work to prevent additional layoffs.“It’s unfortunate that we’re in this situation in Kansas City,” he said. “American Airlines continues to displace our base and we feel like they ought to have distributed work a little more fairly but at this point, we’re working to reach an agreement to bring in any more work. American Airlines and the union have worked collectively in pursuit of a couple of lines of work, but we haven’t been able to nail them down, yet.” Staff writer Michael Westblade can be reached at 389-6636 ormichaelwestblade@npgco.com.
Gordon Clark, president of the United Transportation Workers of America Union local 530 chapter, confirmed the layoffs and blamed the circumstances partly on the economy. “We’re going to have a layoff of about 150 people and they are being displaced just because of the downturn in the economy and the consolidation of the airline,” he said. “Most will be able to relocate to other locations in the American Airlines system if they choose to do so, but they’re still being displaced from their homes and their families. It’s still not a real comfortable situation. But that’s where we’re at.”American Airlines announced the culling of 1,500 jobs nationwide in July due to a fleet reduction, with 600 expected at the time to come out of Kansas City.Fortunately, Kansas City is expected to lose significantly fewer positions than the 600 jobs union officials predicted back in July, thanks to voluntary layoffs and the addition of new maintenance lines.After the July announcement of staff cuts, McLallen said the overhaul base had 250 workers leave through the voluntary program October through December, which significantly lowered the amount of workers the company had to lay off.The company also acquired two new 767 maintenance lines which allowed them to keep additional staff, McLallen said, but, ultimately, the company was still forced to cut staff due to the fleet reduction.“Obviously it will be difficult for folks who have worked in Kansas City and don’t want to move,” she said. “Fortunately, it’s not 600 people, it’s more like 170. We’re just reducing some of the maintenance work there and it’s tied to the fleet reduction and capacity reduction. That will leave us with 450 or so from the Transportation Workers of America Union with additional management and noncontract employees.”With the new maintenance lines in place through the first quarter of 2010, McLallen said things should remain stable at the overhaul base through the end of the year.Clark said the union and American Airlines are still actively searching for third-party work to prevent additional layoffs.“It’s unfortunate that we’re in this situation in Kansas City,” he said. “American Airlines continues to displace our base and we feel like they ought to have distributed work a little more fairly but at this point, we’re working to reach an agreement to bring in any more work. American Airlines and the union have worked collectively in pursuit of a couple of lines of work, but we haven’t been able to nail them down, yet.” Staff writer Michael Westblade can be reached at 389-6636 ormichaelwestblade@npgco.com.
Labels: American Airlines, Kansas City, layoffs, Missouri
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