NWA union leaders still confident about strike
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune
September 17, 2005

Four weeks into their strike and two days after Northwest Airlines filed bankruptcy papers, mechanics remained confident Friday that they will negotiate a new contract and save some of their jobs.

Union leaders are betting that management will fail to hire enough permanent replacement workers, which would force the two parties to resume bargaining.

"Obviously the strike isn't over," Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director for the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), said Friday.

Northwest management started hiring permanent replacement mechanics on Tuesday, but the carrier declined to quantify the number hired.

The union has plenty of leverage because, MacFarlane said, temporary workers have been slow to cast their fate with Northwest, and many do not want to uproot their families and move to Detroit or the Twin Cities.

"Who in their right mind is going to accept a job offer from a company who clearly has got a lot of problems to begin with and then files for Chapter 11" bankruptcy, he said.

MacFarlane said Northwest managers have been sending letters and making phone calls to woo AMFA mechanics back to work.

But he said Friday that fewer than 10 people have crossed picket lines and accepted their old jobs at lower pay rates imposed by the company.

"Some of our striking members have spouses that work for Northwest," MacFarlane said, and managers have been "putting the full-court press on these people, telling them they have to talk their husbands or wives into coming back to work."

Andy Roberts, Northwest's executive vice president of operations, said in a recent interview that "a striking worker can return at any time until we have a permanently replaced workforce." He added, "The probability of all of the positions being filled instantaneously I would say would be very unlikely."

Northwest CEO Doug Steenland, in a Wednesday statement to the bankruptcy court, noted that the company imposed a new contract for mechanics when the strike began. Consequently, Steenland said, Northwest doesn't expect to use the bankruptcy to set new wage scales for mechanics.

In a bulletin to members, AMFA leaders explained that the bankruptcy law allows the debtor, the airline, to initiate contract changes. "The union does not have the same right to petition the court for changes it might want to make to the terms and conditions of an imposed agreement," AMFA's memo said.

Jim Young, chairman of AMFA's negotiating committee, said he thinks some of Steenland's recent comments were "designed to scare our striking members." However, he said, AMFA members "are smarter than that," still hold leverage over Northwest and will remain on strike until the company offers a reasonable deal.

AMFA leaders turned down a deal in August that would have saved 2,750 jobs and provided up to 26 weeks of severance pay for workers who'd be laid off. MacFarlane said that would have been a short-lived deal.

"Had AMFA signed the deal that Northwest offered back in August, that deal would now be totally in jeopardy. It would be in bankruptcy court ready to be whacked again," he said.

What would it take for AMFA to do a deal?

"The company would have to start out by showing some level of respect for its employees that have built this carrier over the decades," Young said. He emphasized that mechanics are holding out for "severance, good work rule language and job protection for those employees that will continue with the company."

Northwest said in a Friday statement: "We anticipate no talks with AMFA at this time."

Young acknowledged that many AMFA members are angered by their treatment by Northwest management, and do not want to return to work. "That's why severance pay is such a big issue," he said. "There is a good number of employees out there that would be happy to get a decent severance package and wash their hands of their company."

Young said Northwest's proposals have been so extreme in their cutbacks that union leaders have not submitted them for a membership vote and the vast majority of members support the strike. "Members would rather take a stand for what's right and, if necessary, find employment elsewhere with a company that recognizes their skills," Young said.

Striking AMFA members will each soon receive about $200 from fellow union workers. The United Auto Workers union recently donated $880,000 to support Northwest AMFA members nationwide.