Read The Other Posts
 

Carol, respectfully, in my opinion, you write as if you have not read the many, many posts on this board from the last month that deal with blatent work slow downs on NW. If you did read them, it is my opinion that you seem to have dismissed the lot of these incidents as legitimate. I think if you look at the number of complaints posted about mechanical delays over the past two years on this board, you will see that there has been a huge, quantum spike during the last month. Then you need to ask yourself, as a lot of us already have... WHY? :confused:

Of all of the recent posts regarding mechanical failures during the last month, the one I loved the most was this post on cabin door pressurization issues.

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=455432

I have flown almost 500K miles since 1987 and have yet to encounter this one... :rolleyes:

@:-) Respectully, I think you should re-read some of the other posts on this board from the last month and see these slowdowns for what they are.

-Alan

I just do not understand their threat. Go onstrike with a company that lost 250 million last quarter and is loosing money hand over fist. If they strike, the airline can not recover. They have enough pressure, I think as others have said the world has changed.

IMHO, if the unions cause NW to stop operations for even a day, it will never restart.

There are a lot of people playing with fire. When the former NW employees are all on the unemployment lines, the remaining legacy carrier employees will be smiling and thanking them as they cash their pay checks.

Wake up! Midnight is right around the corner.

Hyperbole ... The loss won't be nearly great as one might think. They'll save a ton of money on fuel & labor.

Carol, if you assume that everything that's going on is legitimate, you have only one of two conclusions to draw:

1) NW mechanics are totally incompetent, and cannot keep planes maintained to be in the air, and the FAA should serious look t grounding the airline,

or,

2) NW's fleet is in such bad shape that, despite the best efforts of the mechanics, the airline clearly cannot operate in a reasonable fashion -- and the FAA should seriously look at grounding the airline.

Mechanics being behind the slowdown is actually FAR better than the other possibilities given the systemwide issues that have been seen lately.

Steve

Ummm - I'm not a mechanic. I'm stuck in the middle of this crap just like you.

And it is the current mechanics choice whether the replacement workers get the new pay, or the current union members.

The end result is fairly certain. And if I was a NW mechanic, I'd have resumes out there or be going to school for my upcoming career change.

Wow!!!
 

Well written Steve! I couldn't have said it better myself! ^ :D

-Alan

We all know there are usually at least three sides to a story: your side, my side and the right side.

But this is much deeper. While the mechanics are far from having absolutely clean hands, the fact remains that NW has asked its workers for cuts and concessions with nothing in return -- no participating in decisionmaking, no equality of sacrafice from management and certainly no access to the plan to turn the airline around (if there is one). NW is asking worker to essentially buy a pig in a poke and they should draw the line in the sand. If they really need concessions to keep the airline afloat and turn it around, then the airline should have come to workers in a spirit of collaboration and cooperation. It did not.

There are some serious questions about NW management. Not just for what I stated above, but also for the mismanagement to date. NW wants to eliminate thousands of mechanic jobs. Does this mean NW has too many mechanics? If so, how did that happen? If the mechanics are overpaid, how did THAT happen?

"We all know there are usually at least three sides to a story: your side, my side and the right side"

More accurately:
Understanding is a three edged sword: There is your side, their side, and the truth-Ambassador Kosh of the Vorlon Empire

Good Form
 

Good points -- all of them.

Being in management for a Fortune 50 company, and Senior Management at that, I can tell you that I have never come to work with some fiendish plot to leave out all of the people who work in my organization. I do not think it is much different for NW management either. But, being in management, you are often put in a position to either piss off your employees, your stockholders, and/or your customers. It is hard to make a utopian place and have everything you do be a "win-win-win" in this regard.

My issue with the NW mechanics is not pay, but form. I am asking them to take the high road and have good form during this period of negotiation, concession, and even dispute with NW management. By facilititating work slowdowns - NW mechanics are, to be verbose, pissing and crapping in their own bed. As anyone knows, this is something you just don't do. I agree with the previous replies to this post; the mechanics actions run the risk of taking down NW and, consequently, the mechanics very own jobs. Unfortunately, they do not have the cushy parachutes and retention bonuses that NW management does. And those bonuses DO exist; I have received these myself for my company as a Senior IT Manager in an area deemed as "business critical" by Executives.

At my company, the IT System Administrators had the opportunity in the fall of 2003 to wipe out or throw out the root passwords for all of the computer servers which run our business after they found out, at the 12th hour, that their jobs were supposed to be offshored to Bangalore India. But did they? No. They were professional during a period of high frustration, uncertainty, and -- Senior Management greed. Results: They retained their jobs and the same Senior Management is either gone, or in a position to have to prove to the SEC that the jobs were not offshored {yes -- there is justice in this world}.

I am asking the NW Mechanics (and Pilots and FAs) for good form during this period. Whatever can be negotiated with NW Senior Management -- go for it.

-Alan

I agree with Alan that employees cheapen their cause when they stray off the high road.

Those of us old enough to remember the civil rights movement of the 1950's and 1960's will note that the protestors generally sought to retain moral authority, a very powerful weapon.

Wise words. Thank you Alan! ^

Kinda true...but the rest of us have a choice on who's equipment we fly, not that we want to be on someone else's equipment......I wish you guys/gals truely in the middle the best of luck

Great points Dick, except everything I've read over the years says NWA has been talking with all unions for the past few years about give backs, the unions have been extremely slow to move so while I agree there is a lack of collaboration I'm not sure it's on NWA's part....they are not to a point that they can no longer wait to correct the mistakes of yesterday/yesteryears