Getting money advice from a bankrupt airline wasn't the thing that most offended some soon-to-be laid-off Northwest Airlines Corp. employees. It was the dumpster-diving tips.
Northwest is laying off its customer service workers and baggage handlers at many smaller airports as it reorganizes under bankruptcy protection.
Earlier this month, it sent workers in Bismarck, N.D.; Bozeman, Mont.; and Austin, Texas, a handbook with tips for handling their layoffs. It included 101 money-saving ideas such as, "Don't be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."
Other tips included using old newspapers for cat litter, asking friends and family for hand-me-down clothes and asking a doctor for free prescription drug samples.
"I realize that some person probably thought they were doing a world of good," Bryan Dalzell, a Northwest customer service agent for 27 years and a union steward in Bismarck, N.D., told the St. Paul Pioneer Press Wednesday. "It came across to us, after losing our jobs after a lifetime of work, as patronizing and rather insulting."
Employee outrage prompted Northwest to change parts of its handbook, called "Restructuring Q&A and Employee Support," and remove the list of money-saving tips from its internal Web site. Northwest said an outside company assembled the information, which was first reported Saturday by the Bismarck Tribune.
"We do realize that some of the information in there might be a bit insincere and, for that, we do apologize," spokesman Roman Blahoski said. "There are some tips in there that are very useful and there are some tips that, looking back, were a bit insensitive."
Jackie Diebel, a Northwest worker in Bismarck, said she wept when faced with the reality of her pending layoff in November and the company's suggestions.
"How condescending to tell people to move to a cheaper place to live and if you go on a date to take a walk in the woods. Give me a break," said Bobby De Pace, president of the International Association of Machinists district that includes Northwest. "This is one of the worst things about how they treat their employees in the worst of times."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0608170207aug17,1,6096838.story?coll=chi-business-hed
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