Dear Mats Jansson
Copy to the local Chicago and Washington press and to various press channels throughout Scandinavia.
Regarding the outsourcing of your staff at Chicago O’Hare and Dulles International Airport
This letter is written on behalf of the hundreds of EBG, EBS and EBP members who frequently use SAS to and from Chicago O’Hare that are members of
www.flyertalk.com.
As you know, the Chicago is SAS largest intercontinental destination and, Dulles is one of now 3 SAS destinations in SAS biggest intercontinental markets. Both are known for having Scandinavian speaking personnel who are always there to help and give the type of service an SAS customer expects.
It has come to our attention that SAS has decided to lay off the entire staff at O’Hare and Dulles and hire an outsourcing company (The company engaged at O’Hare SAS previously used, but terminated the contract with due to incompetence, I was myself delayed for hours on at least one SAS flight a month due to error in loading procedures and slow / lack of workers)
This was done even if the current SAS employees have, among other things, voluntarily suggested an 8% pay cut to keep their jobs at O’Hare.
We realize that SAS is a business and that the company is struggling to survive, but to hire a company that pay their employees no benefits that will be the personnel that handle SAS flights every day, will of course lead to a much lower quality personnel which again will drastically reduce the level of service that Scandinavians who choose SAS expects. As an example, SAS tried to outsource the SAS location in Seattle in the mid 90s and during 9 months, SAS traded out such low quality handling companies 3 times before biting the bullet and rehiring their own personnel.
Many of the local employees are very helpful and fluent in Scandinavian languages and very knowledgeable about the SAS products, including SAS frequent flyer benefits. Also, SAS is marketing a large number of seats to the premium market through an excellent Business Class and Economy Extra. As an experienced business man, do you really think a person working on 50SEK hourly salary before taxes, no health benefits and making less money than a person working at Starbucks is the kind of person that should be handling premium passenger that pays thousands of USD for a ticket?
We understand that desperate means are needed for times like this, but as the recession now is starting to ease and things slowly get back to normal and prices do the same, you will deliver a product at your largest intercont destination that’s way below what I and other loyal SAS flyers expect from a company like SAS. Core SAS needs to be more than constant cuts across the board, it needs to be forward thinking on how SAS can win back market shares and expand in the future. We feel like the SAS management has ignored that after a recession, the economy always flourish and by cutting two aircraft and also doing drastic measures like outsourcing entire locations at the size of Chicago with around 1000 pax a day going through the airport, you are further dragging SAS flagship, the intercontinental service in to even worse problems and us and others will prefer other carriers who actually don’t have crucial employees outsourced to companies that keep their employees on minimum wage contracts and with no health benefits. None of your competitors across the Atlantic have made the move you just did with IAD, ORD and maybe Newark as well.
We therefore urge SAS to reconsider and invite you and the employees in Chicago and at Dulles to sit down together with representatives from Flyertalks large group of SAS frequent flyers to find a solution that’s usable for both employees and the customers who pay yours and your employee’s salaries.
Truly yours,
Tommy Danielsen
Moderator for Flyertalk.com, 16 year EBG member
