Mechanics strike

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Watch part 3 of 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS' special strike coverage

Strike appears imminent
(Friday 10 p.m.)

Deal looks unlikely as deadline nears
(Friday 6 p.m.)

Judge bars Mesaba sympathy strike

Guam airport reopens partially

Tell us what you think about the looming NWA mechanics strike

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will have extended coverage of the strike

Read what 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS viewers have to say about the strike

Last minute deals on the table(Friday Midday)

Air travelers getting nervous
(Friday morning)

Not even talking (Thursday 10pm)

Little progress during Thursday talks (Thursday 6pm)

NWA, mechanics not even in same room (Thursday Midday)

Mechanics: 'Strike seems like the only option'
(Thursday
morning)

Mechanics make offer to NWA (Wednesday 10 p.m.)

Mesaba mechanics will honor picket lines (Wednesday 5 p.m.)
Negotiators not hitting the big issues
(Wednesday Midday)

Talks end on sour note
(Tuesday 10 p.m.)

Northwest training replacement workers in the desert
(June 6)

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will have extended coverage of the



MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - After months of failed negotiations, union mechanics for Northwest Airlines have decided to walk off the job.

Union spokesman Jim Young says the mechanics would rather see the airline go into bankruptcy than agree to Northwest's terms.

The union, which represents about 4,400 hundred of Northwest's 40,000 workers, decided to strike around eleven tonight (central daylight time).

The airline -- which says it is losing four (m) million dollars a day -- had asked the mechanics for a 25-percent pay cut and for the right to lay off two-thousand positions so that the work could be outsourced. In 2000, Northwest had already slashed their ranks by nearly half.

A huge question for both sides is whether other Northwest unions will cross a mechanics picket line.

By Friday afternoon, the two sides had gone all day without a joint session, said Jim Young, a union negotiator at the site of talks in Washington, D.C. He declined to comment further on the talks.

Northwest, which says it is losing about $4 million a day, wants its mechanics, cleaners and custodians to take a 25 percent pay cut. It also wants the right to lay off another 2,000 so it can send more of their work to outside vendors. Northwest has already slashed their ranks from 8,390 in 2002 to 4,427 now.

Northwest has said it needs $176 million worth of savings from mechanics as part of $1.1 billion in annual savings from all its employees. It said it made its "last, best" offer on Thursday night, though it wouldn't give details. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association said the offer wasn't good enough.

"I'm absolutely convinced that the proposal that they made last night moved inches, where yards need to be advanced," said AMFA Assistant National Director Steve MacFarlane on Friday.

Northwest, the nation's fourth-largest airline, and its regional carriers operate more than 1,500 flights to 750 cities. It has hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis, Tokyo, and Amsterdam. It employs about 40,000 people, including 4,427 in the mechanic's union.

Mechanics union leaders have predicted that a strike will seriously disrupt the airline.

A huge question for both sides was whether other Northwest unions would cross a mechanics picket line. Only the flight attendants appeared to be seriously considering a sympathy strike - and Northwest said it had replacement workers for some of them, too. A flight attendant vote on whether to strike was scheduled to end one minute before the mechanic strike deadline.

Ground workers and pilots didn't say whether they would honor a picket line, but they had been considered unlikely to. They said they would announce their position after a mechanic's strike begins.

On Friday afternoon, a federal judge barred mechanics at Northwest regional carrier Mesaba Airlines from staging a sympathy strike. Those mechanics are represented by the same AMFA locals that represent Northwest mechanics at hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis.

"The effects of a disruption in Mesaba's operations would be felt in thirty-three states and three Canadian provinces," Judge David S. Doty wrote. "Twenty-one cities and towns where Mesaba is the lone scheduled airline stand to lose all commercial air service. Thus the public interest favors issuance of the order."

On Thursday, the union local that represents 2,700 Northwest ground workers in Detroit said it would not honor a mechanic picket line.

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