US Airways cutting more than 90 jobs in Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh will bear the brunt of another round of cutbacks by US Airways, losing more than 90 of the 176 jobs the airline is slashing in 11 cities.
The airline will eliminate more than 70 fleet service jobs and 18 ticketing and gate jobs at Pittsburgh International Airport, dealing yet another blow to a region that has suffered loss after loss at the hands of the carrier.
Gregory Bodrog, outgoing president of Lodge 1044 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, said Tuesday that 65 full-time and 11 part-time fleet service workers will lose their jobs in March as part of the reductions.
However, Todd Lehmacher, a US Airways spokesman, said he was told that 73 fleet service workers would be furloughed here. Either way, the reductions will leave only a fraction of employees remaining in a fleet service workforce that once numbered more than a thousand.
Some of the workers losing their jobs have as much as 32 years of seniority with the airline, Mr. Bodrog said. The cutbacks will leave the union with about 80 employees to load and unload baggage and cargo and to clean and cater jets in Pittsburgh.
"It doesn't look like US Airways management wants to grow in Pittsburgh anymore," he said. "It looks like they want to dissolve it."
The 18 passenger service employees facing layoffs work at the ticket counters or the gate, Mr. Lehmacher said.
The Pittsburgh furloughs are part of a larger reduction that will affect 176 US Airways customer service and fleet service employees in 11 cities, including Boston, Buffalo, Los Angeles and Memphis, according to Robert Isom, the airline's chief operating officer.
In a letter to employees, he said the cutbacks were the result of reduced flying in some markets, overstaffing at some stations, and the discontinuance of mainline employees handling ramp functions for US Airways Express flights at two locations, including Pittsburgh.
First Published January 12, 2011 12:00 am
