Feds urge judge to bar strike at NWA

MINNEAPOLIS – The U.S. attorney’s office in New York filed court papers Wednesday urging a judge to bar flight attendants at Northwest Airlines Corp. from striking.

Flight attendants have said they may stage sporadic, unannounced strikes after 7:01 PDT Friday unless Northwest negotiates a better contract with them. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper ruled last week that he has no jurisdiction to block a strike. A federal judge in Manhattan is set to hear Northwest’s appeal Friday.

Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection last September in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, so the appeal must be heard in the same district.

The U.S. attorney’s office brief said that Gropper was wrong and that Northwest and the flight attendants are obligated to bargain as required by the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations at airlines. The Railway Labor Act generally bars strikes unless a mediator has released both sides from talks – something that hasn’t happened in Northwest’s case.

The Association of Flight Attendants has said the law gives them the right to strike because Northwest, with Gropper’s permission, imposed a new contract on them on July 31. Flight attendants had twice voted down agreements negotiated between the airline and the union.

In legal papers filed Wednesday, the AFA wrote that Northwest’s imposed pay cuts and other changes have been “devastating” for flight attendants.