United slashes another 171 jobs
By Michele Kayal
Advertiser Staff Writer
In the latest round of airline layoffs, United Airlines has cut more than 170 Hawai'i employees, or roughly 10 percent of its work force in the Islands.
In a letter to the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, United said 171 employees would be cut as part of the airline's work force reduction plan.
The layoffs touched workers from maintenance to management, said Tom Renville, United's managing director in Hawai'i. Before the actions, United had 1,800 Hawai'i employees, roughly 700 of them at the airport.
"We're hoping we're done, and that people will fly, and that our airline becomes healthy again and we can call our people back to work," Renville said.
The layoffs took effect Oct. 31 and Nov. 1, Renville said.
United announced in September that it was cutting 20 percent of its flights and 20 percent of its work force worldwide because of the sudden drop in business following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, which involved the hijackings of four U.S. commercial airliners, two of them United aircraft.
United was among a long list of U.S. carriers that together trimmed about 100,000 jobs.
In Hawai'i, United retained its Neighbor Island service, but cut a San Francisco-Honolulu flight and a Los Angeles-Honolulu flight, leaving it with seven overseas flights per day from Honolulu.
Other carriers also announced cuts in Hawai'i. Hawaiian Airlines announced in September that it would furlough 430 of its 3,524 employees. Aloha Airlines had asked most of its 3,000 employees to consider taking two days' leave without pay per month so it could bring back the 250 workers it furloughed last month, but that proposal was rejected by the employees' unions.
Reach Michele Kayal at mkayal@honoluluadvertiser.com
Correction: United has seven oveaseas flights per day from Honolulu. Also, Aloha Airlines had asked most of its employees to consider taking two days' leave without pay per month. A previous version of this story was in error on those points.
