UPS pilots have agreed to seek $131 million worth of voluntary savings over the next three years inorder to prevent up to 300 job layoffs.
The company and its pilots have signed a deal under which the roughly 3,000 pilots have tovolunteer by next week for a range of cost-saving steps including leaves of absence, earlyretirement and job sharing. UPS will then calculate by June 7 whether the voluntary measures aresufficient to meet this year’s $40 million savings target, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
In addition, UPS is aiming to achieve a further $38 million worth of savings in pilot costsin 2010 and $53 million in 2011, according to the Associated Press.
In April, UPS started talks with the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) over laying off 300pilots in order to save operating costs while avoiding redundancies. This would be a 10% cut in itsworldwide pilot workforce. The IPA had proposed various voluntary measures, including leaves ofabsence, early retirements, job sharing and reduced work time, in order to reach the savingstargets.
UPS is seeking the operational cost savings since it is scaling back flights and reducing itsair fleet, including the retirement of 44 older DC-8 freighters.
