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June 4, 2010 - A
survey of 360 Anchorage residents conducted this week
reveals hard feelings towards UPS following the start of its pilot
furlough. A full 36% of Anchorage
residents surveyed rated UPS a bad (24%), or very bad (12%), corporate
citizen in Alaska
and neighbor in Anchorage.
50% of the
respondents said what made them think worse of UPS is the fact that it
recruited and relocated 155 pilots and their families to
Alaska. The majority of these pilots are now
slated to lose their job as a result of the layoff.
This was followed
closely by 49% of the respondents thinking worse of UPS due to the $4.7
million in yearly unemployment payments that
Alaska
will have to make to furloughed pilots.
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The final major
source of ill will among those surveyed was the $15 million in lost
wages from Alaska
resident pilots furloughed by UPS; 46% said that this made them think
worse of UPS. In May, UPS began its first ever pilot
furlough. UPS's announced intention is to layoff at least 300 pilots,
approximately 11% of its 2,800 member pilots group, by the end of 2011.
This layoff will have a disproportionate impact on
Alaska. Of the 300 impacted pilots; 262 are
domiciled in Anchorage
(the 2nd largest UPS pilot base); 84 of the 262 are Alaska residents.
360 interviews
were conducted using e-Rewards online panel of 6,579 residents of the
city of Anchorage,
Alaska, from June 1st to -3, 2010. This
survey has a Margin of Error = + 4.9% at the 95 percent confidence
interval. AmericanPublic.us, Inc. is an Arlington, Virginia-based public
opinion research firm which focused on public policy and communications
polling.
Founded in 1990
and located in Louisville, KY;
the Independent Pilots Association is the collective bargaining unit for
the 2,800 pilots who operate the UPS Airline.
The
Independent Pilots Association
has been
working with
UPS, for the past year to identify ways to cut operating
costs to avoid any pilot furloughs. However, UPS announced plans to
furlough at least 300 of its airline pilots in February.
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