Officers of Evergreen International Airlines Inc.'s pilots union say they’re in the dark concerning the fate of the McMinnville-based company, which apparently flew its last flight Monday.
Capt. James Touchette, chairman of Air Line Pilots Association International Local 118, issued a statement Friday in the form of a news release that was more like a plea, fishing for reliable information on the troubled airline. The release said Evergreen’s management team had planned to meet Tuesday with lienholders to determine the company’s future, but a decision on the airline’s fate remains unknown.
“As far as the union knows, all of the planes have been parked and the lights are out at headquarters in McMinnville,” said Touchette, a former Evergreen cargo-jet pilot who is chairman of Local 118’s master executive council.
Managers of the privately held airline have been out of the public eye since Monday, when Mike Hines, chairman of parent company Evergreen International Aviation Inc.,
last returned a call from a reporter for The Oregonian. Hines said then
that the company was still operating and managers hoped to save it.
Delford Smith, the parent company’s chief executive officer, has not returned repeated phone calls. An assistant said this week that Smith hadn’t been at work, adding that the 83-year-old founder of several Evergreen companies hadn’t been to the office the week before, either.
Touchette's news release said paychecks received by crew members Thursday lacked vacation payouts that had been promised by management. The union has filed a grievance on the missing payouts, he said.
“We are doing our best under these circumstances that we possibly can to get the crew members all of the money owed to them by the last payroll,” Touchette said in the release. It's what loyal union members deserve, he said.
Evergreen’s last flight apparently occurred early Monday. A Boeing 747-400 cargo jet made a short hop from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to Victorville, Calif., according to former employees and reports by workers who said they crewed the 46-minute flight. The 747-400 – the same one that flew Evergreen’s last military flight, from Yokota Air Base, Japan, to Travis -- had arrived at Travis after midnight Thursday from Yokota.
Delford Smith, the parent company’s chief executive officer, has not returned repeated phone calls. An assistant said this week that Smith hadn’t been at work, adding that the 83-year-old founder of several Evergreen companies hadn’t been to the office the week before, either.
Touchette's news release said paychecks received by crew members Thursday lacked vacation payouts that had been promised by management. The union has filed a grievance on the missing payouts, he said.
“We are doing our best under these circumstances that we possibly can to get the crew members all of the money owed to them by the last payroll,” Touchette said in the release. It's what loyal union members deserve, he said.
Evergreen’s last flight apparently occurred early Monday. A Boeing 747-400 cargo jet made a short hop from Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to Victorville, Calif., according to former employees and reports by workers who said they crewed the 46-minute flight. The 747-400 – the same one that flew Evergreen’s last military flight, from Yokota Air Base, Japan, to Travis -- had arrived at Travis after midnight Thursday from Yokota.
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