NWA strike faces headwind

MINNEAPOLIS — Striking Northwest Airlines mechanic Russ Christenson hands out lime-green fliers asking passengers not to fly on his airline. Many of them offer words of support before disappearing through the airport’s sliding glass doors. Many lament the airline’s use of replacement workers.

And then they fly on Northwest anyway.

Every day, thousands of Northwest passengers, replacement workers, and other unionized Northwest workers walk past Christenson and other strikers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Northwest flights are running about as full as they were before the strike, and the carrier has claimed that bookings are strong. Labor experts said a picket line this porous doesn’t bode well for the strikers.

The strikers are on their own against “a very determined employer and a large pool of replacement workers,” said Gary Chaison, an industrial relations expert at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “If things remain the same and continue on this path, then the strike would be doomed.”

About 4,400 mechanics, cleaners, and custodians walked out Aug. 20 rather than accept 25 percent pay cuts and layoffs that would have halved their work force. Northwest lost $4 million a day during the first half of this year, under pressure from rising fuel prices and competition from discount carriers.

Northwest immediately replaced the strikers with temporary workers, contractors and vendors — and kept flying. However, the airline has acknowledged its performance suffered in the days just before and just after the strike began.

AMFA has said that safety concerns will push passengers to switch airlines as the strike drags on. Chaison called that “the only thing the union has going.”

“This is a strike that will be determined by the consumer,” he said. “If they feel that flying is chancy, and safety is an issue, then they could swing very quickly over to the union side.”

That’s how retired truck driver Garwood Knutson of Albuquerque, N.M., saw it.

“If Northwest cannot prove they can continue reliable service with the replacement mechanics, I would be concerned,” he said, holding his Northwest boarding pass for his flight home after visiting family here. “I would be looking for alternate carriers.”

“The longer it lasts, the more desperate (Northwest) gets, the more concerned I get,” said passenger Ray Schnichels of Gainesville, Fla.