See below... *sigh* The goonies need to walk 'em all off the property and cut up the security access cards on the way out; principle is "don't let the door hit your #$$ on the way out the door!"
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Last update: August 18, 2005 at 11:47 PM
In Detroit, mechanics say they'd go down fighting
Tony Kennedy, Star Tribune
August 19, 2005 DETROIT0819

ROMULUS, MICH. -- With Michigan nearly leading the nation in unemployment and with auto-plant shutdowns looming around Detroit, mechanics at Northwest Airlines' largest hub are acutely aware that a strike could result in the permanent loss of all their jobs.

Keith Johnson, an NWA mechanic at Detroit Metro Airport for the past 20 years, says he doesn't care. Not as long as the 700 members of his local union, AMFA Local 5, go down swinging.

"We know that it's a fight to the finish," said Johnson, whose wife is a Northwest flight attendant. "If I lose my job, but I know that they [the company] take a hit, then, yeah, I guess that's what happens. We're tired of giving, giving, giving."

With little progress being made at the bargaining table and with a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Saturday in Detroit, Johnson's mood is shared by many other mechanics at Northwest's all-important "World Gateway" location in the Motor City.

Although the Twin Cities is a major hub and the corporate headquarters for Northwest, Detroit Metro is the carrier's biggest and most strategic location.

As in Minnesota, NWA dominates Michigan's market for air travel. At super-sized Detroit Metro, where there are about 1,345 daily flights, Northwest and its Airlink partners operate 45 percent of them. About 60 percent of all passengers who begin or end their trip in Detroit fly Northwest, and Northwest and its Airlink carry nearly 80 percent of all passengers who come through Detroit Metro, including those on connecting flights.

With Northwest losing about $4 million a day and facing possible bankruptcy, the company entered final contract negotiations with AMFA with a proposal to slash 53 percent of the jobs in the group and lower wages by 25 percent for those who survive the cut.

The union has said a smaller wage reduction would be possible but has refused to give in to job cuts for a group that is dominated by workers in their early 50s.

"I can't take it anymore," said Patrick Nugent, 59, a Northwest mechanic for the past 39 years. "You're going to sign a contract to cut your own throat? I don't think so."

Northwest employs about 8,600 people in the Detroit area, including 964 AMFA members. Mechanics in this hard-core union territory are defiant and angry when talking about replacement workers, but many rank-and-file mechanics say their union shuns violence.

Still, tensions are running high. Local 5 has set up its strike headquarters in a dank union hall borrowed from Local 174 of the United Auto Workers, about 4 miles from the airport. At a rank-and-file meeting there Wednesday afternoon, Local 5 Vice President Dennis Sutton warned members to stay out of trouble but also informed them that the union has bail money set aside if anyone is arrested and jailed.

And when Local 5 President Bob Rose announced at the meeting that Northwest made a late contract proposal to eliminate all the jobs held by airplane cleaners in the union, the crowd of about 200 members quickly chanted, "Strike, strike, strike!"

Also at the meeting, Metro Airport Police Chief Edward Glomb pleaded with mechanics to keep decorum on the picket lines in the event of a strike or face immediate arrest.

Under normal airport procedures, the number of pickets will be strictly limited by permits allowing only two to six demonstrators per approved site. Airport officials denied, for instance, a union request to picket the airport's main entrance for construction workers. Some union members believe Northwest will bus replacement workers into that entrance if there is a strike.

"It's going to be a volatile situation," Glomb said. "We hope for the best but are prepared for the worst."

The chief said he expects Northwest to have its own security personnel at the picket lines in Detroit, videotaping behavior that the company believes violates rules for demonstrating. Northwest plans to weather a possible strike by using replacement workers, contracting with independent maintenance firms and slightly reducing its schedule.

Rose and Sutton are encouraging union members to bring their own video cameras to the picket lines to point at Northwest's camera operators. As far as replacement workers go, the union has set up informational pickets outside a couple of Detroit-area hotels where AMFA officials believe they are housed.

Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said Thursday that the early Detroit picketing hasn't been an issue in the company.

This week, Local 5's Web site began to carry photos of suspected replacement workers caught on camera outside a hotel in nearby Dearborn.

"All you can do is make their lives a miserable hell the rest of their lives," Sutton said.

Johnson, who is 51, said Northwest could possibly go to bankruptcy court to get the job cuts it wants. He also acknowledged that if Northwest can keep flying during a strike, all strikers could lose their jobs. But he said members of Local 5 widely believe Northwest's operations will sputter during a strike more than the company expects. If that happens, AMFA would gain leverage for a possible back-to-work agreement.

Michael Conway, a spokesman for Detroit Metro, said contingencies have been made to care for stranded passengers in the event of a major strike-related disruption of Northwest's flight operations. But he said airport officials have no reason to doubt Northwest's assertion that it can fly with reliability during a walkout.

Conway also said he has no reason to believe picketers will turn disruptive. There has been no history of picket line violence at the airport, he said, and there has been no indication that Local 5 would break the pattern.

"I can't ever remember an instance of trouble," Conway said.

Sutton said he's personally prepared to battle the company for a long time.

"I'm going to spend every last bit of energy fighting this company," he said.

Tony Kennedy is at [email protected].

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