It's called enlightened self interest. So no, I don't deserve a "medal." Supporting companies that strive to drive down wages while management gives themselves a $2 million dollar raise is not in my best interest (nor yours, I would argue).

Never mind..it's not worth it

How much does Medicare Cover? because thats all the workers will have left if NW goes belly up... Horrible Logic.

I pay my own health insurance and I survive. Pension, what's that? I am the 401(k) generation. Hmmm and Union rules ALWAYS increase efficiencies in operation and all the labor is maxmized for best output. Union rules eliminate, "That's not my job" statements and so forth. I am sure that if the union didn't exist, they really didn't need those half of the employees and their salary would be in line with other mecahnics in the industry.

When times get tough you have to suck it up. In my business, me and my family have taken pay cuts, was not paid commissions, health insurance not paid for and, among other things, our houses mortgaged to get the business through tough times. You do what you have to do to survive. If you are not that emotionally invested, then simply leave. You can't have it both ways.

You can only live off the fat for so long, unions have got so used to it for so long, it's trying to get a junkie off of smack.

- HF

I'm with kpalle. Every time I see picketers (or pre-strike picketers as I saw at MSP the other day) I can only think to myself, "Get back to work."

Oh, sorry, i didn't realize I was dealing with a socialist. Logic won't work here, then....

They don't have pensions because people like you support companies that have stripped them as a benefit. Don't know about you, personally, but these are often the same folks who would like to see SSI done away with (as long as they get theirs). Of course, how they are supposed to shift 15% of their pay to a 401K after a 25% wage cut is their problem, right?

The mentality these days is work 30 or 40 yrs, then go into a corner and die. This so Ma and Pa Walmart can kick back with $110 billion instead of $100 billion in their pocket books.

You assume that with the 50% staff reduction that you would have a job when this is negotiated. What if you only had 18 years of seniority and your vote would end your job???

I'm a capitalist. Just not a greedy, screw everyone but me capitalist. I believe that mentality has made me wealthy.

Carol, two or maybe three weeks ago, we were held for almost 45 minutes while some mechanic went out and foun an ASHTRAY (for armrest) to be replaced. An ASHTRAY

Did it ever occur to you that sometimes the people in management make more money than "union" guys is that they are smart enough to manage a large organization well to keep those union guys employed? Hey, there are a ton of turkeys in management also, but the assumption that all of management is twirling their mustaches and counting their money and don't derserve any of their salaries is ludricrous.

- HF

Well then, cut to the chase and go in to your boss on Monday morning and say "please give me a 25% pay cut, lay off half my co-workers, and charge me 50% more for my benefits. And those 401K benefits? I'd rather donate them back to the company so you can charge our clients less and still get really, really rich."

Let us know how that does. I am sure your boss will be delighted to accomodate you.

I'm all for controling the number of strike threads... but it makes it 4 million times harder to follow a thread when like 14 threads have all been thrown together into one. The Mods would have been better off just locking the other threads and picking one to be the strike thread.

If they are all so damn smart, why are they on the brink of BK? If they are all so damn smart, why do all of them, industry wide, jump on the bandwagon of charging less for a flight than it costs the airline to provide it? What's smart about that?

And why are they more important than the people who keep the planes from crashing to the ground and killing the customers?

The "Strike is on" thread seems to be a discussion on the pros and cons of the strike...NOT THE IMPACT ON THE FLYING PUBLIC...US.

Please use this thread for real information so that we can plan accordingly.

Thank you,

Mike