Wouldn't it be nice -- and appropriate -- for a civil discussion to ensue here.

Many years ago I recall a grade school principal saying, "There are three sides to every story. Your side, my side and the right side."

(Of course, in the real world there may be more than three sides!)

The labor dispute between NW and the Mechanics Union is complicated because there are valid competing interests and, unfortunately, neither side really has clean hands.

NW needs to reduce costs and overhead. This is a given. Unfortunately, NW has yet to collaborate with its entire workforce and even customers on how to make that happen. (By contrast, AA has collaborated with workers to come up with cost savings.) This is especially peculiar since there are three labor representatives on the NW Board of Directors which suggests that NW's board may be fairly week in terms of corporate governance.

It would be easier to embrace NW's position if the airline was up front, honest and inclusive. It hasn't been.

For the union's part, there is sentiment that it is being unrealistic, but yet the numbers suggest that they were willing to make concessions. Some of what NW sought no union would ever agree to. Some numbers I read indicate that NW wanted to go below the post-bankruptcy cuts approved at UA. There are also questions as to whether NW really intended to negotiate in good faith. Apparently the union was willing to agree to $110 million in concessions and, according to the Detroit News:

"The average Northwest mechanic wage is about $70,000. The company's request for $176 million in concessions would have amounted to about a 25 percent pay cut for mechanics who escaped job cuts. Northwest also sought 2,000 more layoffs - almost halving a workforce that is already half the size it was in 2001."

According to the union, they were willing to reduce 1500 positions and offered $110 million in concessions, which suggests they were willing to meet NW more than half way:

http://www.amfanatl.com/Pages/06_New...date_%2327.pdf

I note that when Chrysler was undergoing financial distress and needed th rebuild, Lee Iacocca went to the workers and included them as part of the solution. Here, it seems that NW has not done that nor did it give the union any asssurance about the security of the jobs for the remaining workers. Chrysler preached equality of sacrafice from the executive suites to the line workers plus promised profit sharing when the company recovered. Kind of sounds like NW's management needs to be reading a different book.