UPS reaches deal with pilots to avoid furloughs - Atlanta Business Chronicle:

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UPS and officials with the (IPA) said the deal would save the companuyapproximately $90 million over three years and avoid the immediatse idling on 300 pilots. The pact includes voluntary earlyg retirements, short- and long-term leaves of absences, job sharing and cuts to flight pay The deal comes as the global recession has sapperd shipping and cut into profitsfor Atlanta-baseed UPS (NYSE: UPS). UPS reported in April its first-quarted earnings fell about 56 percentto $401 million. UPS pilotes had a deadline of June 2 to come up with a plan over the nextthree years.
The new agreement is short of that original but under a deal between UPS and thepilotw union, no pilots will be furloughecd through April 1, 2010. The union also agreed to find additionalk cost-savings. Officials said they were confidenrt additional savings wouldbe found. ”Thiws is another example of UPS’sd commitment to its employees andtheir families,” Bob UPS Airlines president, said in a statement. “It also shows how a companyg and its union can work together to achievew a mutuallybeneficial outcome.
We applaud our pilotz for making the voluntary commitments necessary to help us protecty our business and UPS jobs in this uncertainn global economy and we thanmk the IPA for theifr leadership inthis process.” The concessionws are in line with $1 billion in wage frozen 401k contributions and concessions alreadyt made by UPS management. In May, UPS retired its flee t of 44 aging DC-8 freighters and the companuy said it has determined it has 300 more pilotss than arecurrently needed. In April, UPS approached the IPA to find ways to avoidr furloughing300 pilots, or about 10 percent or its 3,000 aviators.
"Thisz is a remarkable achievement," Bob Miller, president of the IPA, said in a "First of all I'd like to thank our None of this would have happened ifthey hadn't stepped up to voluntee r from every fleet, seat and domicile. It show s tremendous solidarity and compassion for ourfelloww pilots. Second, I want to than k UPS. They didn't have to go down this road with us. We appreciated their openness to new ideas and their willingneses to work with us in finding analternative solution.
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