United Airlines said Friday that it would lay off nearly 1,500 management and salaried employees by Jan. 19.
That is a 14 percent reduction in its management and salaried work force, and a 1.9 percent decline from its total work force of 80,000 employees.
United, a unit of the UAL Corp, has been struggling to restructure its business since filing for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 9. It has to meet certain monthly cash flow expectations set forth by its four lenders so that it can obtain access to US$700 million of loans. United said Friday that the furloughs would help it achieve the cost cuts needed to reach those cash-flow numbers.
The airline also said it would close its remaining 32 city ticket offices by Jan. 28, resulting in the furlough of an additional 188 workers.
Dan Walsh, United's vice president for sales, said in a statement that United customers were increasingly buying tickets online or through a reservations hot line. This made the city ticket offices unnecessary, he said.
United has not decided who among its management and salaried employees will be laid off. It said it would send notices to the affected workers as soon as those decisions were made.
"These changes are part of the process of creating a new business that is competitive, customer-focused and sustainable," Sara Fields, United's senior vice president in charge of people, said .
Last week, United put a message on its employee hot line saying that "significant layoffs are likely in the short run." The company said that it had recorded that message because a federal law required it to give advance warning if there were big layoffs or plant closings in the near future.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, United has laid off more than 20,000 workers, or a fifth of its work force.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2