By TOM DAYKIN 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.

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.

By TOM DAYKIN One day after Midwest Air Group Inc. said it was eliminating nearly 400 jobs, Chairman and CEO Timothy Hoeksema defended the move as a difficult, but necessary, cost-saving measure.

By Thomas Daykin, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Jan. 17--After warning last year that a takeover attempt by AirTran Holdings Inc. would lead to big job cuts, Midwest Air Group Inc. was able to fend off the bid. But the job cuts have arrived anyway.

MILWAUKEE _ When it was fending off a takeover attempt, Midwest Air Group Inc. warned that a sale to AirTran Holdings Inc. would bring big job cuts.