Northwest, pilots reach tentative deal
MINNEAPOLIS — Pilots reached a tentative pay-cut deal with Northwest Airlines Corp. Friday, a major step toward ending a showdown that put the bankrupt airline’s future in doubt.
The nation’s fourth-largest airline said it got the $358 million in savings it sought, but other details weren’t released. This deal, as well as pacts reached earlier with flight attendants and ground workers, needs ratification to be final.
The agreement removed the threat that Northwest would simply impose the cuts it wanted on pilots. Pilots said they’d strike if that happened, and both sides agreed that could have killed the airline.
“The tentative agreement is a painful but necessary part of a successful restructuring of Northwest Airlines,” said Mark McClain, head of the Northwest branch of the Air Line Pilots Association. “If all of us can distance ourselves from these recent labor struggles and focus on ensuring the future success of Northwest we can begin looking forward to our emergence from bankruptcy as a proud and profitable airline.”
Like other bankrupt airlines, Northwest used the leverage of the bankruptcy code to pry concessions from unions that never would have given them otherwise. Northwest first sought pay cuts in 2003, claiming the highest labor costs in the industry. The disparity only grew as bankrupt competitors won concessions from workers.
Ironically, the pilots who held out until Friday were the first Northwest employees to accept cuts. In late 2004 they took a 15 percent pay cut and urged other unions at Northwest to do the same. They didn’t. Mechanics, cleaners and custodians even struck in August rather than accept Northwest’s demands.
Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 14, and eventually asked its bankruptcy judge to let it reject several union contracts. Under that threat, one by one, the unions made deals. By Friday, only the pilots were left.
Friday’s deal leaves only Delta Air Lines Inc. pilots holding out in this round of concessions. But some airline experts didn’t think this would be the last time airline unions are pressed to work for less.