BlogBreak

By Doug

March 18, 2008 1:36 PM | Link to this

I accepted a buyout last year because I guess I’m getting up there in age and my company didn’t want to keep paying me a high salary. I used the time and money to travel a bit and start my own business from home and I couldn’t be happier!

By DALflyer

March 18, 2008 1:43 PM | Link to this

Most Delta people won’t be able to take the buyout as they can’t afford to leave. Health insurance is expensive, and there are few good paying jobs for the average person. Sadly, there will be layoffs in the near future.

By hrw

March 18, 2008 1:56 PM | Link to this

The Air Lines Industry in fairness has enough funds to keep its workers and hire more. anytime flying becomes so expensive and you are charged for almost everything, then monies you pay help them buy fuel and stay in business. That’s my opinion.

By Omar

March 18, 2008 2:38 PM | Link to this

Just because the airlines are charging for everything does not equalto financial stability.. Just look at how the fuel prices have soared over the last eight years since President Bush has been in office…this is absolutely ridiculous when i bought my home in 2005 gas prices range from $1.29-$1.50….now three years later the fuel prices have reached record prices and the oil companies are still making record profits…and this has affected not just employers airline industry but individual also…I think about the friends I have that are employed with Delta from managment to frontline employees…I pray that God provides for them a new beginnning…

By Dan

March 18, 2008 2:49 PM | Link to this

The headline says it all, a perfect example of media hysteria and how good we really have it. Corps as big as Delta invariably have 1000’s of employees (maybe 10%) doing very little. The simple fact they are offering packages rather than simply laying off people is clearly not something to “cope” with, rather something to be thankful for and a clear sign of a company that values it’s employees more than most. and btw I took a package from Bellsouth so I understand fully.

By Jack

March 18, 2008 2:52 PM | Link to this

Take the buyout. Delta will be DOA within 5 years anyway. That way at least you’ll have had ample time to move on and do something different w/ your life. Those who stay till the end are screwed. GM and Ford are aggressively trying to do this now also. Why? Because they know that to squeeze every penny of profit out of their operations, they must divest themselves of ALL american workers and their pensions and benefits. They can then freely move on to a drastically cheaper labor force, unencumbered by annoying, cost inducing things like minimum wage laws, health benefits, vacations, safety standards, pollution standards, etc… Laugh if you want to, but these things are discussed in great detail every day in boardrooms across corporate america. China is where they are ultimately headed. Where HopSing will test circuit boards 14 hours a day for the equivalent of $1.00 per day w/ no benefits for a company like GE. And he will like it because now he only makes 45 cents a day cementing bricks in Nanjing 14 hours a day with no benefits.

By ed

March 18, 2008 2:55 PM | Link to this

Omar,

i think you were paying more than that for gas in 2005. it was not that low. katrina hit in 2005 and prices were higher.

By Merger_King

March 18, 2008 3:25 PM | Link to this

Lockheed-Martin is next……..Defense “welfare” is about up.

By Norm

March 18, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this

Believe me when Delta talks about buyouts it is not a normal corporate buyout. I worked for this company and this has been offered before mid 90’s and early 00’s. Comparitively to someone like Ford or GM whose offer to 10 year employees is somewhere around the 100 thousand mark. I had 20 years service and was offered 12 thousand after taxes about 8. I always thought it had something to do with volume and unit differences but it still seems uttterly absurd. Also, they have been training contract agents for months to take over agent positions, and I agree with the comment about big corporations and there antics always b*** about labor costs strangling the company. Do the math people, big business hieracrchy, after the bad management decisions have been made and the greedy higher ups have been paid the pain filters down to Joe the regular guy. CEO’s/CFO’s/VPs who are mercenaries anyway should be replaced by the company’s Board, done by commitee. Figureheads have become oh so costly!

By roge

March 18, 2008 4:20 PM | Link to this

Our own country is causing this. we have oil in Florida and Alaska but these States refuses to let us drill because it could hurt the enviroment. I understand the oil companies wanting to make a profit, but at who’s expence? Does anyone in this country really care or is it all about the big dollar?

By Alexis

March 18, 2008 4:32 PM | Link to this

I took a buyout from a VP position at WorldCom about four months before the collapse into insolvency. My business unit was sold off into pieces as the company crumbled. My buyout was two years salary in cash and three years salary in stock options. My only regret is that I didn’t liquidate the stock options upon departure; instead I ended up with 2 years of my salary in cash, equal to 540k; and then some worthless pieces of paper that should have been equal to a little over 800k but because of my blind faith in the company, ended up being worth more as collector’s items than stock certificates….

By Dan

March 18, 2008 4:57 PM | Link to this

Norm you do the math, first of all the buy outs translate into years of service time some number of weeks of salary. So the numbers corps or the media throw around are averages. As for auto companies of course they are that high why do you think cars cost so much, manual laborers are making 100k/year Thats why companies want to move to china not corp greed. and corp payoffs to execs have zero to do with screwin the little guy,I had this discussion when I worked at bellsouth, the ceo got a $10M bonus, if that was split over all the emp it would have been $100 each which rather than causing good will amongst the employees would have p** them off cause it was only $100. Unions and high taxes drive corps away