Gas prices have gone crazy this year. In Houston this month it has been around $3.60 a gallon. It is so painful to fill up my car! And it's also been painful to the airline industry. At work we get constant updates on the cost of jet fuel and what that means for our profitability. It's not good. On June 5th Continental announced they would be reducing capacity, fleet and staffing due to the cost of jet fuel, which at the time was over $151 a barrel--a 75% increase from a year ago. Yikes! This reduction would amount to sixty-seven mainline aircraft being retired from service and 3,000 jobs being eliminated. This totally bummed me out because I love my job (especially the flight benefits) and since I am on the bottom of the seniority ladder, the furlough could, and probably would, affect me. Such an sad thought!
When the furlough was announced, we were told that 150 full time equivalent jobs would be eliminated. The first phase of the furlough was to offer COLAs (Company Offered Leave of Absence) for 6, 9, 12 L& 15 months. With a COLA, you get to keep all your benefits and seniority level, and are just off for the time period you request. These were offered to employees who had been with the company for at least 3 years, which means I was not eligible. They also offered early retirement packages to people. Between these two programs, our management was hopeful that they could avoid involuntary layoffs, but it all depended on how many people signed up. I worried about this for a while, but finally decided that this was a wonderful job and I was going to enjoy it as long as I had it. I really felt like the Lord had lead me to this job, and even though we would miss the flight benefits (something we are now getting very used to), I was just going to have faith that if I got laid off everything would be alright. You would think by this point in my life I wouldn't have a problem actively using this type of thinking. But I am worrier by nature, and this instance was no exception. But once I came to this conclusion, I felt so much better. I love the peace that comes from trusting in the Lord!
Well, this week I got some excellent news. Enough people had signed up for COLAs and early retirement, that the only people they were going to furlough were those who had termination warnings in their files. I was so relieved! Hopefully the leaves will get the company through this tough financial time and I’ll be able to be a Continental employee for a very long time! Now, where do I want to fly?
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