Northwest mechanics strike
WASHINGTON – Mechanics struck Northwest Airlines early today after refusing big pay cuts and layoffs that would have cut their numbers almost in half. The nation’s fourth largest airline pledged to keep flying with replacements.
After months of talks broke off here 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. The Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association comprises 4,427 of Northwest’s 40,000 workers. The strike began at 12:01 a.m. EDT.
Flight attendants and pilots at Northwest Airlines said they would not join the walkout by mechanics.
Julie Hagen Showers, Northwest’s vice president for labor relations, told reporters the airline will operate a full schedule today.
Young said the company did not negotiate in good faith because it had a contingency plan to use contract workers as replacements for the strikers.
AMFA National Director O.V. Delle-Femine said in a statement that the union expects flight schedules to be disrupted “because 4,500 AMFA technicians who average 20 years of live experience on Northwest’s fleet are being replaced by 1,500 people who in many cases have little or no live experience on the type of aircraft Northwest flies.” He said their training was “woefully inadequate.”
Showers said the company’s final offer was fair and equitable. The airline wanted to get $176 million in savings from the union.
“AMFA was unable to meet the saving targets we needed,” she said. “It would have been irresponsible not to have a plan in place.” Showers said the contingency plan would realize the desired savings.
At the union’s headquarters in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of AMFA, said the union had “no choice.”
“Truly, we are fighting for our very futures and our families,” MacFarlane said.
Northwest sought $1.1 billion worth of annual cuts from its employees. Last fall, pilots agreed to a 15 percent pay cut worth $300 million when combined with cuts for salaried employees. The pay cut sought for mechanics amounted to about 25 percent.
The carrier has some of the highest labor costs in the industry. And all older airlines have been battered by rising oil prices and travelers’ shifts to newer discount carriers.
As the deadline drew near, dozens of mechanics and their family members gathered in a parking lot near the union’s regional headquarters in Bloomington. Within sight of a Northwest maintenance hangar, they grilled hot dogs, drank beer and waited for news.
“I’m afraid they’re going to try their best to break our union,” said Joe Woods of Atlanta, a Northwest mechanic for 23 years. “If they want to fight, this is a good place to start one.”