from freep.com:

http://www.freep.com/money/business/nwa20e_20050820.htm

"The depth of union anger was evident late Friday night as Dennis Sutton, vice president of AMFA Local 5 at Metro Airport, told a gathering of members in Romulus, "Enjoy this. This is a chance in a lifetime to screw Northwest."

no wonder we have so little 'respect for working people.'

Why would they cross the picket line and then take sympathetic actions?

Because they are legally not allowed to strike. They weren't in negotiations and they didn't have a strike vote.

If they do a sympathy strike they will be fired and their unions are subject to hefty fines.

While I respect your opinion, I think it's time to really look at how asinine this is on all levels.

Only in a union mind could a 25% pay cut be worse than NO JOB AT ALL. You want these jobs yet you take great joy--yes, I say joy, look at the union folks on TV grinning while chanting--at trying to hurt the company that feeds your family.

Yes, I feel that walking around in a circle holding cardboard on a stick becuase the union tells oyu to is apelike behavior. Do their mouths water when you ring a bell too?

I work when my employer says work. No one but me or my employer will EVER tell me anythign different. My family comes before anyone telling me that I cannot work because some union boss man says I can't. Deliberately walking off a job and puting your family at risk is just plain old dumb. Deliberately hurting a company to make your point when that company is what sends you checks to keep the lights on.

It's time to call this union nonsense what it is: Hurtful to the very people it's trying to help. The unions seem to feel that a company already losing money will somehow come up with the money needed to NOT makes these concessions. But then again, these union bosses KEEP GETTING A PAYCHECK while the union members who pay their salaries earn nothing. Anyone willing to stand behind these union bosses has got to have his head examined. maybe if the union officers stopped earning a paycheck during the strike...

--Paul

It's that kind of childish mentality which is why there's so much pro-NW support on here.

I never understood what a union stands to gain by ruining a company... doesn't make sense to me. I'm all for workers and stuff but not when union pimps are portraying them as sabeteurs.

ALPA leadership has voiced their opinion all along....they have given back, and they expect every other labor group to give back too.

"Screwing Northwest" - THIS is truly the crap I don't understand. If the 1,500 replacement mechanics, the 300+ managers and other outside contractors can't keep the airline flying...the airline will be at the doors of the Delaware Bankruptcy court faster than you can spell AMFA. And then what do the mechanics have to gain?

A judge-imposed contract
Their pension sucked dry over at the PBGC
The rest of the labor groups hatred (they will have to go through both these items above too)
More jobs lost than what the company proposed pre-strike
and a lack of strike pay from AMFA

But hey, AMFA has money saved up for bail!

There's a lot more work involved than just doing line checks. Just an "oil change & lube" alone will take several people an entire shift or two to complete. Overhaul work would pull more people off for even longer periods of time -- it's not a trivial task to do a D check on a widebody plane taking everything apart and putting it back together.

Plus, 1500 total people does not mean they're all working all at the same time for every hour in the week. If each of them is working a 40 hour week and there are 168 hours in the week, then that's 23% of them working at any given time, or 381 mechanics available systemwide on an average basis. With the number of little things that have to be done to repair planes, that's not all that many. Including that these are also the ground crew that run the tugs and other ground equipment as well as the aircraft cleaners, that's really not many people left to fix anything. Marginally normal operations might be able to be maintained, but anything irregular will likely cause it to fall to pieces.

There aren't really any spare aircraft to put in service when something fails (see the 747-200 recently parked on 6L at GUM) and there aren't the maintenance resources to fix planes to prevent them from going out of service, so I think we're going to see targeted cancellations and the majority of service maintained at least for the first few days. Beyond that is anyone's guess, but the stock market seems to be hedging their bets.

Back in 2001 at the last contract agreement, there were 9,300 active members of AMFA for NW. Today less than half of those are left to go on strike because they were asked to reduce by yet another half. I see the ultimate target as pushing out the AMFA represented positions from the NWA company structure and outsourcing that to either one of the Airlink carriers or whatever external private company can do that as low-bid. Whether that's ultimately good or bad I'm not sure, but I think that having experienced, knowledgeable, and specialized employees within a company that are dedicated to the company doing well at all levels is generally (but not always) preferable to trying to work with an outside vendor.

As for pay, the approved 2001 contract is right on AMFA's site. Someone working 40 hours a week as a Technician would make $28/hr for $58,240/yr (slightly more for A&P licenses). While I don't know if there's been any change since then, the likelyhood it has increased is quite small and much more likely that it has since been cut. There's not really any bonus for seniority in the pay scale, so the technicians left that have 20 years' seniority are paid at that same rate. That's not all that much for the experience that these people have in doing the work and getting it done well compared to a number of other industries.

You're losing sight of the corporate greed here. It isn't union greed that is asking for a decent wage and that 53% of their jobs aren't outsourced.

Where were you people when the UAL managers who only worked there 2 years were getting the highest wages in the industry at a bankrupt company and taking away 20,30,40 year workers pensions?

When AMR managers were setting up secret retention bonus plans while telling workers that they had no money and were going to have to declare bankruptcy if they didn't take enormous pay cuts?

Nobody is disputing that management should make more money than the workers. Why do they have to ensure that they are taking millions while the companies aren't even making profits and the workers aren't making enough money to live in 90% of the cities in america? Specifically the cities these airlines fly out of.

Does it make sense to EVERYONE that US jobs should be outsourced to foreign workers? What can this possibly mean for the future of america?

I just don't get it.

Yes, the union workers shouldn't be making these comments but you need to understand the disheartening treatment that is fostering these comments and feelings.

NO! SORRY! WRONG!

It is 53% of the AMFA group at NWA. I think we could all agree that aircraft cleaners are not mechanics. Same thing with janitors. These people do not have their A/P license. AND, this is where AMFA went wrong. When the mechanics broke from the IAM a few years back, AMFA sold it self as a Union for mechanics...for the "skilled labourer". And now the technicians/mechanics are facing a strike with no strike pay, and quite possibly, no job.

I really do feel for the technicians/mechanics. They are getting caught up with bad Union politics. AMFA has really sold them down the river...and I feel they will never understand that.

Good luck to the ACTUAL mechanics/techs. I wish you well, and hope that an agreement is worked out for your benefit.

I don't think the mechanics could cross the lines if they wanted to.

Source?

My guess: there just isn't a lot of sympathy for a mechanic who, despite having experience and a family to feed, makes $58,000 per year. That is a solid 40% more than the average American, for a 40 hour work week - and that doesn't include all those fat union benefits, like 150% pay for overtime, sick leave, vacation, etc. And although being an airline mechanic is specialized work, and no one wants the average guy on the street fixing their plane, it probably isn't quite rocket science; it didn't require investing 4 or 8 or 12 or more years of education (all the while paying out of pocket for that education); and there are a lot of people out there who may be willing to do the work for less - even without resorting to "outsourcing" or "foreign workers." I bet you can find those willing workers right here in the USA - and I bet the mechanics are about to find this out.

I don't wish the mechanics ill will by any means. I do think they are being unrealistic, and although NW's demands were harsh, I think the mechanics are cutting off their noses despite their faces. It's like the old saying about sports strikes and lockouts: When you pit millionaires against billionaires, the millionaires lose - every time. Just ask the NHLPA.

It's easy to say that....of course you should accept these terms blah blah blah....but when it comes down to it, could you work for 25% less? do more work? that is if you still have a job??

I personally didn't get a standard cost-of-living adjustment (2-3% annually) for 3 years thanks to the Louisiana legislature and have been livid....with new work rules imposed in hospitals, I've had more work.....I've been livid....

Think about how hard it would be to have a paycheck cut by 25%. If you make $100,000 (e.g. Pilots) then sure it sucks but you and your family still can live decently. But when your salary is much lower and you take a big cut....then you start choosing between basics of life....paying for healthcare, school, the mortgage....

Now even though the management is driving a hard line, I don't think they are malicious. They've put off labor cuts for much longer than the other airlines and don't seem to advocate dumping pensions like others either. But their reality is bleak....9/11, SARS and bad economy are long gone...but not the cost pressures....the slump isn't going to end....

Tough times, bad news all around, and I wish everyone luck...

NW1272
8/20/2005
Departs: Minneapolis/St. Paul-Int'l, MN (MSP)
Arrives: Sioux Falls, SD ( FSD )
Scheduled: 6:51PM Scheduled: 7:56PM
Actual: Cancelled Actual: Cancelled
Note: Irregular Operations
Status: Cancelled

Thats the first one I noticed.

Thanks for posting this.

Hopefully this will help at the table!