Hawaii’s largest carrier, Hawaiian Airlines, won’t be making the thousands of involuntary job cuts that it had anticipated in the wake of the coronavirus-related drop in travel demand and lockdowns.
The carrier filed an amended Worker Adjustment Retraining Notification Act letter with the state on Wednesday. In the letter to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Hawaiian’s Executive Vice President & Chief Legal Officer Aaron J. Alter said the company was able to reduce the involuntary furloughs that were set to take place no later than Oct. 1 from 2,037, or 35% Hawaiian’s union employees, to 192 union employees.
According to Alter’s letter, the updated list of Hawaiian’s union employees who are at risk of involuntary furloughs includes 157 flight attendants, 73 first officers, 61 customer service agents, 37 ramp agents, 26 customer service chief agents, 19 lead ramp agents, two cleaners, 14 contract service agents, 10 lead cleaners, 10 weight and balance agents, two weight and balance chiefs, two mechanics, one aircraft records agent, one reserve ramp agent, and one chief contract service agent.
Prior to COVID-19, Hawaiian was one of the state’s largest employers and was enjoying a long growth period. From 2005 to March, it had gone from about 3,500 to 7,500 employees, about 90% of whom were working in Hawaii.
Alter’s amended WARN notice is an update to Hawaiian’s earlier expectations, which were outlined in an Aug. 31 letter sent by Peter Ingram, Hawaiian Airlines president and CEO. However, Ingram had always said that he hoped involuntary separations would be reduced through voluntary reductions and early retirements. He also had hoped another round of the federal payroll support program, or returning travel demand, would make a difference.
The carrier had participated in the federal payroll support program, which helped protect jobs through the end of September. There’s been a proposal brought forward by the major national unions, including the unions representing Hawaiian’s union employees, to extend the program from October to March.
Capt. Larry Payne, chairman of the Hawaiian Airlines Master Executive Council of the Air Line Pilots Association, International (ALPA), said in a statement, “With the airline industry and the Hawaiian tourism industry enduring the worst crisis in our history, we urge Congress and the president to quickly pass an extension of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act to extend financial support to airline employees and other workers for an additional six months.”
“This crucial legislation will provide valuable time for medical therapies currently under development to begin showing results as we collectively work to end this pandemic,” Payne added.
So far, neither the federal support nor the travel demand for Hawaii has materialized. However, Gov. David Ige did announce on Wednesday that Hawaii would start a pre-arrivals testing program Oct. 15. That program would allow travelers who have taken an FDA-approved NAAT coronavirus test from a CLIA lab within 72 hours of traveling to Hawaii to bypass the mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.
This is a breaking news story so it will be updated when Hawaiian Airlines is able to provide the count of employees that accepted voluntary reduction offers.
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