It pays to work for Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air employees are receiving annual bonuses of more than 9% of their annual pay, equating to more than five weeks’ pay for most workers. The bonus is in addition to the approximate US$1,000 monthly bonuses in 2014, that most employees were awarded for fulfilling on-time, customer satisfaction objectives. The company’s monthly and annual bonuses, which are part of their incentive-based pay program, came to almost US$116m in 2014, the highest in Alaska’s history.

Tammy Young, Alaska Airlines’ Vice President of Human Resources, said: “We’re really excited to reward our employees for all the great work they’ve done this year. This is the sixth year in a row Alaska and Horizon employees have exceeded their payout targets for performance-based pay.”

The annual bonuses are divided up geographically as follows: nearly US$51m (55% of the total) is being paid to nearly 6,000 Alaska and Horizon employees in the Puget Sound area. US$12m is being paid to 2,122 employees in Portland, Oregon, while US$9m will be paid to employees within the state of Alaska.

Bonuses in the company’s performance-based pay plan are achieved by meeting specific company-wide aims established annually by the board of directors, relating to issues of safety, customer satisfaction, cost control and profit. Since launching the program in 2003, Alaska has paid employees US$624m in combined incentive-based pay and monthly bonuses. Alaska Air Group has contributed a further US$620m over the past six years to its benefit pension plans as part of its goal to provide employees with rewarding careers and good retirement benefits.

LAX police union criticize LAPD for luggage-theft raid

In March 2014, Airport Police suspected around two dozen baggage handlers at Los Angeles airport of being involved in a scheme to steal from travellers’ luggage. However, almost a year later, no one has been charged. When the scheme was first uncovered, the LAPD detained 14 people for questioning and arrested six – four on suspicion of receiving stolen property and two on outstanding arrest warrants – but those detained were never successfully linked to any stolen airport property.

According to the airport police union President, Marshall McClain, the raids took place despite concerns that the taskforce lacked police reports identifying stolen property or victims. He went on to say that one arrest was made following the discovery of several electronic devices at the home of an airport employee, despite no police report identifying the recovered items as stolen. And the suspicious goings-on don’t end there. An Airport Police officer who voiced concerns over the legality of the arrest has since been reassigned from his position as detective, indicating retaliation from his own department. A Los Angeles police chief strongly disputed the union’s claims, saying that prosecutors and a judge approved search warrants prior to the raid, but did acknowledge that the taskforce had been unable to identify specific victims or tie property found during searches to anything stolen from airline passengers. He resolves that the LAPD, “sent a clear message that thievery wasn’t going to be tolerated.”

Union President McClain said that his only motivation was to ensure that officers were not asked to break the law or violate people’s civil rights.

DHL Global Forwarding completes Chicago freight station

Following a year’s construction, DHL’s US$35m freight station located at Chicago O’Hare is open for business. The three-story, 491,000-square-foot facility has become the company’s largest in the US, with a combined office and warehouse capacity big enough for 500 workers.

The facility has been validated by the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism and is certified by the US Transportation Security Administration as a cargo screening facility. It is expected that, by the second quarter of 2015, the facility will be authorized as meeting federal security handling guidelines by the Transported Asset Protection Association. The two temperature-controlled chambers, plus a 999 square-foot ambient-temperature receiving area, make the facility one of only eight certified Life Sciences Stations in the US, capable of handling pharmaceutical, biotech or medical products. Additionally, the DHL facility is in the process of obtaining a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for energy-efficient buildings, thanks to its various environmentally-friendly aspects, including high-efficiency lighting and the use of materials with low-emitting indoor air contaminants.