Pan Am cuts work force at tradeport By Christine Gillette cgillette@seacoastonline.com PORTSMOUTH - Add Pan American Airways to the list of airlines cutting personnel in the sagging travel industry. The airline issued furlough letters at its Pease International Tradeport headquarters and maintenance facility Thursday, reportedly releasing employees across the company from maintenance to flight crews. "We are making some reductions in force," said John Nadolny, Pan Am general counsel and vice president. "They are expected to be temporary, to adjust to the seasonality and slowness of business. At this point, we don’t know the duration, we hope that everything turns around." Nadolny would not say how many workers were being released, nor from which departments, but some airline employees who did not want their names published estimated at least 10 percent of jobs were being cut at Pease alone, not including cuts at other Pan Am centers like Sanford, Fla. Employees also said that workers were laid off from Pan Am’s affiliate, Boston and Maine Airways, which also has operations at Pease. Pan Am is the only airline that operates regularly scheduled flights from Pease. The workers who lost their jobs Thursday say they will receive no severance pay other than their last paycheck and perhaps their remaining vacation pay. "It sort of ticks me off because I was there from Day 1. We brought in the first aircraft, we painted the hangar floor. There’s a lot of me that went into that place," said Bruce Kelley of North Hampton, a lead mechanic with the airline since it opened at Pease nearly four years ago. "To walk out the door with a, ‘well, see ya’ ... It’s just a sour taste in your mouth. It’s a complete feeling of not being appreciated by the people you work for or your efforts." Kelley said more than 500 people worked for Pan Am at Pease until Thursday, and estimated at least 10 percent were furloughed. "We were told today they were basically going to park a couple of their planes for a couple of months," Kelley said. "If they fly fewer planes, they need less crew." Another worker who did not want his name published said Pan Am has been running its routes with about nine Boeing 727s. Kelley said he’s received no indication if or when he or any of the other furloughed workers will get their jobs back. "All they told us in the letter is we were on furloughed status, but there was no way to know the duration of it," said Kelley, who, like the other workers let go Thursday, was notified in a letter distributed by a superior. "I really doubt very much they’re going to call any of us back. And if they did, I’d be very surprised if they had much of a turnout." The furloughs come shortly after some employees tried unsuccessfully to unionize, according to another laid-off worker who did not want his name published. "There’s a lot of people here who have families who have lost their jobs," the worker said. "I really don’t know why. All of a sudden, the union didn’t go through, and now it’s just gone nuts." With the layoffs in the maintenance department, said the worker, about 25 mechanics are left to support all of Pan Am’s 727s, "which isn’t much; it’s like a ghost crew." _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com