Skyway Airlines Pilots Decry Lack of Severance Benefit

MILWAUKEE _ Nearly 200 Midwest Connect pilots who are losing their jobs are not being offered severance pay, and their union claims the pilots are being unfairly singled out.

Skyway Airlines Inc., which operates Midwest Connect for corporate parent Midwest Air Group Inc., will provide severance pay to flight attendants, mechanics and other employees. Skyway pilots, who are members of the Air Line Pilots Association, say they’ve been denied similar offers because of their union membership.

“All we asked for is to be treated fairly,” said Randy Schmidt, chairman of the Skyway pilots union.

The union’s contract with Skyway doesn’t include a severance pay provision. That’s typical for the airline industry, said both Schmidt and Michael Brophy, spokesman for Midwest Air, which also operates Midwest Airlines.

Severance pay “is not stipulated in the contract,” Brophy said, so the company is not providing it to the pilots. Brophy said other employees who are not covered by union contracts will receive severance pay because “it’s a fair thing to do for those employees.”

According to Schmidt, Skyway CEO David Reeve told union leaders that the company’s pilots enjoyed the benefits of a union contract for 10 years, while other Skyway employees worked without contracts.

Skyway’s position is “meanspirited and vindictive,” Schmidt said.

Brophy said Midwest Air management was surprised by those comments.

“We thought we were working pretty well with the union on this situation,” Brophy said. He cited other benefits offered to the pilots, including reduced airfares on Midwest Connect/Midwest Airlines, as well as sponsorship of job fairs.

“It’s not as if we’re slamming the door on them,” Brophy said.

Oak Creek, Wis.-based Midwest Air announced Jan. 16 it was hiring Utah-based SkyWest Airlines Inc. to handle all of its Midwest Connect jet flights. Midwest Air hired SkyWest to begin flying 50-seat regional jets under the Midwest Connect name in 2007. The remaining routes, mainly using 32-seat jets, were still staffed by Skyway employees.

By April, SkyWest will begin flying all Midwest Connect jet routes with additional 50-seat aircraft. The larger jets provide additional seating capacity at about the same cost of operating the smaller aircraft, and will help the airline operating more efficiently. As a result, about 380 full-time and part-time Skyway employees will lose their jobs.

Roughly half of the affected Skyway employees are pilots, Schmidt said.

The Skyway flight attendants, who joined the Teamsters union just days before the announced job cuts, will receive two weeks of severance pay, plus one additional week of pay for each year of employment at Skyway. Schmidt said that same severance pay is being offered to mechanics and other non-union, hourly employees. Management employees will receive severance pay, as well, he said.

Also, the flight attendants _ whose newly certified union had not yet negotiated a contract _ and non-union, hourly employees are receiving a higher subsidy for their health insurance after leaving Skyway, Schmidt said. He said the pilots’ health insurance will be subsidized during their third and fourth months after losing their jobs, while the other employees will receive subsidies during all four months after their jobs are eliminated.

The Skyway job cuts are coming after Midwest Air defeated a hostile takeover attempt by Orlando, Fla.-based AirTran Holdings Inc. During that campaign, Chairman Timothy Hoeksema warned of big job cuts if AirTran acquired Midwest Air. AirTran executives denied those claims, and said they planned to greatly expand the operations by cutting air fares and ratcheting up departures from Mitchell International Airport.

Midwest Air on Jan. 31 completed its $451.8 million sale to TPG Capital and Northwest Airlines Corp., which outbid AirTran. TPG Capital, a private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas, owns a 53 percent stake in Midwest Air, with Northwest holding a 47 percent non-management stake.

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