Deadlock Declared In Airline Talks Action Frees Northwest Pilots To Go On Strike After 30 Days

An impasse was declared in the negotiations between Northwest Airlines and its pilots union Thursday, triggering a 30-day deadline to resolve the dispute or possibly face a strike.

The National Mediation Board declared the deadlock after the Air Line Pilots Association refused Northwest’s offer to go to binding arbitration.

The two sides now enter a 30-day cooling off period, during which talks actually may heat up.

Deadline for a resolution is Aug. 29. If there’s no agreement, the pilots say they will strike.

Northwest this summer has scaled back from three to two flights per day connecting Spokane to Minneapolis, with an average of 300 passengers per day.

A Northwest strike could deluge other airlines with extra passengers they may or may not be able to accommodate. Even without that possible glut, this summer has been the busiest in aviation history, with most carriers running at more than 75 percent of capacity.

Northwest made immediate assurances to customers on its Web site not to panic, and that all flights will run as scheduled up to and on Aug. 29. The company also promised to fully refund any tickets if passengers are unable to be switched to another carrier.

If the airline must ground all flights during a strike, activity at the airline’s hub airports in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and Memphis would be severely curtailed. Northwest is the nation’s No. 4 airline in passenger loads, with 150,000 passengers per day, and 1,700 daily flights.

There has been only one bargaining meeting between the two sides in the last month, but talks are expected to speed up before the deadline, said Northwest spokesman Jon Austin in Minneapolis.

“There is no reason why the two parties, negotiating in good faith, cannot reach agreement in the next 30 days,” Ben Hirst, Northwest senior vice president and lead negotiator, said in a statement.

The Air Line Pilots Association voted 99 percent in favor of a strike in May, should the talks come to an impasse, and the 30-day period yield no results. The union, which represents 50,000 pilots nationwide and 6,200 with Northwest, says it is prepared to use its $60 million war chest to last through a possible strike.

“We are ready to roll up our sleeves and do the work necessary to complete these negotiations expeditiously,” said union representative Steve Zoller.

The union has claimed that Northwest needs a deadline to prevent it from stalling any longer, now that the negotiations have lasted 23 months. Northwest says the lengthy negotiations are typical for other airlines.

The dispute dates to 1993, when financial problems caused Northwest to ask for, and receive, pay cuts for all its union employees. The contract was open for amendments in October 1996, and wages then were restored to 1993 levels plus a 3 percent retroactive raise, Austin said.

The union argues that the company should raise wages 7 percent now and 4 percent in the next two years because the company has seen record profits the last four years. The union is also worried about outsourcing to foreign and domestic air carriers threatening job security.

“We didn’t save the airline from bankruptcy in 1993 so we could have our jobs threatened in 1998,” said union spokesman Paul Omodt in Minneapolis.

Northwest says the ALPA is attempting to make its pilots the highest paid in the industry, and Northwest officials suspect it is being done partially to set the market for future negotiations with other airlines. Northwest has countered with 2 percent pay raises every 15 months over the next five years.

Northwest says pilots currently earn an average of $133,000 per year, but the union says the average is $120,000.

Tension has been building since April, when workers began a work slowdown that created numerous delays and cancellations of flights, infuriating customers. In April and May, 71 percent of Northwest’s flights arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, ranking it near the bottom of the nation’s top 10 airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.

On Wall Street, Northwest’s stock rose 31 cents Thursday to $33.69 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has been down sharply since the dispute heated up, with a 52-week high of more than $65 per share.