Southwest offers buyout

[nwafan20]

Southwest offers buyouts to quarter of workers


By BILL HENSEL JR.
Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle

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Southwest Airlines is offering a buyout package to more than a quarter of its employees as it strives to cut costs.


About 8,700 employees are eligible for the package, which includes a $25,000 payout, medical and dental benefits and travel privileges in some cases, Southwest spokeswoman Paula Berg said today.

Dallas-based Southwest, which said last month it was slowing its growth in capacity by adding fewer planes this year, has 2,866 employees in Houston and 33,000 total.

Southwest carries more than 80 percent of the passengers who move through Houston's Hobby Airport.

Among those eligible for the buyout are flight attendants, ramp agents, customer service agents and their supervisors. Other groups include reservations, provisioning, operations and freight.

The airline offered a buyout in 2004, Berg said, as the airline industry was still feeling the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Additionally, it offered a package to employees in three of its reservations centers several years ago and made a similar offer to its field marketing department last February and in 1988.

The airline has not had furloughs or layoffs, Berg said.

"We have no plans for that," she said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4974409.html

[cancidas]

wow, i have to say that im shocked to hear WN do this. thought they were healthy...

[stuart schechter]

Is WN the new Delta? Bankruptcy is right around the corner? I havn't flown on them but hear they are quality.

[njgtr82]

Is WN the new Delta? Bankruptcy is right around the corner? I havn't flown on them but hear they are quality.
I don't think so at all. It is a way to save money and lots of companines do this. Its cheaper to offer these employees at the higher end of the pay bands this buyout and hire someone new at the bottom of the payband. This happened to my friends mom with bell atlantic, and her replacement was hired at less then half the hourly rate she was making.

[stuart schechter]

So just doing a cheap replacement?

[T-Bird76]

Is WN the new Delta? Bankruptcy is right around the corner? I havn't flown on them but hear they are quality.

How do you get bankruptcy from WN wanting to buy out some older higher paid employees? Delta didn't do any even remotely like this; they just laid their ppl off and gave them squat. WN is adjusting their expenses to ensure their long-term sustainability and position in the market place. I freaking swear to god I have no idea how ppl draw such conclusions, you to Matt.... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

[Matt Molnar]

When companies do this their product often suffers. Many of the more experienced personnel leave, and they are subsequently replaced by far less expensive entry-level workers, who of course have far less experience. For a business like an airline which is defined by its customer service — and especially for a company with a reputation for being superior at it — this sort of thing can be especially damaging.

[Alex T]

Tom said it well...

But basically to sum it up in a nutshell..

Our employees make to much money, especially the ones who top out...example, a WN captain who tops out makes 208 bucks a trip, again remember, every 55 minutes=One Trip.


So WN instead of laying off these people or anything wants to do a buyout, ie, ask those who make to much money if they would consider an early retirement and they would still keep all the benefits as if they retired "on time" plus cash on hand and flying benefits whatever the agreement is.

In no way this means WN is filing BK, or firing people or laying people off... It is another way WN is trying to lower cost, as people have pointed out, our employees do make a hell lot of money.

I believe 5 employees CSA wise at my station are eligible for the early retirement, which if they all take it, bumps my senority up 5 slots, WOO HOO!!! Doubt they would take it but who knows!

Anymore questions please ask!

Alex

[Alex T]

When companies do this their product often suffers. Many of the more experienced personnel leave, and they are subsequently replaced by far less expensive entry-level workers, who of course have far less experience. For a business like an airline which is defined by its customer service — and especially for a company with a reputation for being superior at it — this sort of thing can be especially damaging.

However, WN has done this once before, and got a lot of folks to leave, I don't believe it hurt their reputation then nor now.....

Alex

[stuart schechter]

[quote="stuart schechter":1f794]Is WN the new Delta? Bankruptcy is right around the corner? I havn't flown on them but hear they are quality.

How do you get bankruptcy from WN wanting to buy out some older higher paid employees? Delta didn't do any even remotely like this; they just laid their ppl off and gave them squat. WN is adjusting their expenses to ensure their long-term sustainability and position in the market place. I freaking swear to god I have no idea how ppl draw such conclusions, you to Matt.... :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:[/quote:1f794]

Don't throw a ****-fit man, jeez. There is a question-mark there because I didn't fully realize what they were doing.

[USAF Pilot 07]

If you learn nothing else from these boards stuart, remember this... Never, ever mess with Tommy when it comes to Southwest, unless you're cruising for a bruising... :P

For example, last year all I said was "southwest's flight attendants are not as hot as Jetblue's" in front of Tommy, and he tried to sock me, but thanks to my lightning fast ninja skills I was able to gain control of the situation and diffuse it.... But I mean, had I not been trained by this ninja: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6209133931140353025&q=ninjas&total=91665&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4
I woulda been screwed, maybe not even here talking to you today... :shock:

[Mateo]

Lots and lots of companies do this, it saves money by essentially "re-setting" the pay scale, but at the cost of institutional memory, which is a crucial asset for any company, especially one with a very unique culture like Southwest. Probably my favourite silly argument about JetBlue came from people trumpeting their low cost structure in the first couple years of operation. Well, of course, the labour costs are low - everybody is on year 2 of the pay scale!

[T-Bird76]

If you learn nothing else from these boards stuart, remember this... Never, ever mess with Tommy when it comes to Southwest, unless you're cruising for a bruising... :P

For example, last year all I said was "southwest's flight attendants are not as hot as Jetblue's" in front of Tommy, and he tried to sock me, but thanks to my lightning fast ninja skills I was able to gain control of the situation and diffuse it.... But I mean, had I not been trained by this ninja: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6209133931140353025&q=ninjas&total=91665&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=4
I woulda been screwed, maybe not even here talking to you today... :shock:

I don't remember that Clark...infact B6 has some pretty dam hot FA's. Now any bad words of TWA and even the spirit of Bruce Lee won't be able to save you!

Candidly however it’s not that my reaction is a biased response because I'm fond of flying WN it comes from the reaction people get when any bad press about WN is in the news. I can't stand when ppl jump to conclusions based off of one thing, WN or other like stories. Its like a DC-9 story on A.net, someone mentions something about one of their DC-9s and the entire peanut gallery over there makes these ass monkey statements based off of nothing.

Stuat I'm not calling you an ass monkey.

[moose135]

Stuat I'm not calling you an ass monkey.
Not unless you say something bad about TWA, then I'll call you an ass monkey :wink:



Lots and lots of companies do this, it saves money by essentially "re-setting" the pay scale, but at the cost of institutional memory, which is a crucial asset for any company, especially one with a very unique culture like Southwest.
Too often companies do this, then wonder why things don't work the way they used to. We've had it happen here a few times, and we're going through it again now (don't ask me how I know!) You round up the experienced people, pay them to leave, and can't figure out why those who are left don't know what they are doing.