I'd find another job (as I've already done in the past). Last time I checked, union members didn't have guns held to their heads, forcing them to stay in that specific job/field.

Do you have to paste this in as a response to every post? Once is enough.

"After months of talks broke off in Washington just before midnight Friday, union spokesman Jim Young said the mechanics would rather see the airline go into bankruptcy than agree to Northwest's terms. "

Sorry if I'm late to th thread and this has already been discussed but how damn rude. These people don't care two hoots about the livelihoods of the 30,000 remaining NW employees and imho NW should keep using these replacement workers and fire the strikers. People with that attitude are not to be trusted.

To those who refuse to fly NW because of this, more fool you.

The karma is a matter of perspective. From Mr. Sutton's viewpoint, the replacement worker is attacking him, taking his job, taking food off his table. It is not uncommon for people to want to fight back and defend themselves when they feel attacked. Turning the other cheek is all well and good, but how can you call it "unchristian" for Mr. Sutton to be so angry at the the replacement workers? I'm sure if Mr. Sutton was less scared and upset he could find subtler ways to accomplish this. However, I'd wager that in a similar situation you would also fight tooth and nail to protect your position and to keep putting food on your table.

As was pointed out above, without the participation of the replacement workers, this strike would be entirely different- I doubt management would have forced the issue. The replacement workers have made a moral and personal decision that they want to feed themselves at the expense of someone else. Is that "unchristian" or pragmatic? It all depends on your point of view, but you're limiting yourself to one narrow point of view.

It's quite possible on this issue that everyone is right and everyone is wrong at the same time... in negotiations you have to look at things through the other sides eyes to understand the options and come up with solutions.

From the Detroit Free Press:

The average salary of a mechanic is $70,000; the salary for an aircraft cleaner is about $42,900.

Assuming a 40 hour work week, which I admit may not be accurate, thats an AVERAGE of $21 and hour for all the cleaners. So please try to be a little accurate in your wage quotes.

Who is asking them to work for FREE?

I've already been faced with a similar situation in my life Gargoyle. My response was to take a hard look at the circumstances and change careeres. An option the NW mechanics have open to them.

Bottom line...working is about putting food on the table. If one person is "too good" for a job/pay scale (as the union members seem to be) then someone else will fill that job.

They priced themselves out of the market. Given a chance to rectify the situation, they flipped NW the bird.

One of their leaders was even quoted as telling the union membership that this was their chance to "screw NW". They forgot to check which way the air wrench was aimed before they torqued it down.

The union hacks will be whining for a while, but this will all pass.

I would either suck it up and take the paycut or seek another job.

BebackNaminute, thanks for the update. It seems cooler header can prevail.

MisterNice

I wonder if you will feel the same way when greedy Nw messes with your precious f/Flyer BENEFITS... I heard Southwest is going to add 14 first class seats on all its planes and give it away for free just to keep its employees wages and benefits in check.. anyone hear this??

With little to lose, I'd find another career field. And join the strike.

Yes, I definitely AM depriving NW of revenue, and very deliberately. As we are constantly reminded, we have choices when we fly, and I'll not spend my dollars with a company who expects their workers to give up pensions, insurance, and accept huge pay cuts to make up for executive mismanagement.

Since the frquent flyer program is profitable, I doubt they'll mess with it much.

I would not claim to be impartial when I have a clear bias. I would also stop posting this identical thread all over the place!