Here we go again! Brace for a possible TWA strike.
 

The following from Bloomberg News, posted here and not under TWA, because as any saavy traveler knows, one airline's strike effects us all:


TWA Machinists, Flight Attendants Cleared to Strike June 10

Chicago, May 10 (Bloomberg) -- Trans World Airlines Inc. and
the union representing the No. 8 U.S. airline's machinists and
flight attendants have begun a 30-day countdown to a possible
strike June 10, a federal mediation board official said.
The National Mediation Board officially declared the airline
and its largest union at an impasse in a letter sent to both
sides today, setting off the countdown under federal labor law.
At the end of the period, workers are free to strike or stage
work slowdowns.
The strike deadline comes as the unprofitable airline heads
into the busy summer-travel season that generates most of its
sales. The St. Louis-based carrier, which has struggled to
recover from two trips to bankruptcy court this decade, has
shrunk its route network and acquired smaller, more fuel-
efficient planes and so needs fewer maintenance workers.
``Both the machinists and the company know that TWA doesn't
have the financial resources to withstand a long strike, so it
ends up being a high stakes game of chicken,'' said Glenn Engel,
a Goldman, Sachs & Co. analyst who rates TWA a ``market
underperform.''
The International Association of Machinists, which
represents almost 16,000 mechanics, flight attendants and
passenger service workers at TWA, has been in contract
negotiations since September 1997. The last round broke off
Friday in Washington. The union represents about three-fourths of
TWA's 22,000 U.S. workforce.
The machinists have been vocal about their dislike of TWA
management, demonstrating outside its headquarters and writing a
scathing letter of Chairman Gerald Gitner and newly appointed
Chief Executive Bill Compton in March. The letter blamed the
executives for, among other things, continuing to lose money even
as the airline industry as a whole posted three years of record
profits.
TWA, for its part, said it offered workers wage increases
valued at about $250 million over the life of the new contracts
and ``remains committed'' to reaching new labor agreements.
TWA shares fell 1/4 to 5 7/16 in midafternoon trading.