Northwest outlines strike plans

08/12/2005

David Phelps,
Star Tribune
August 12, 2005

An offense-minded management team for Northwest Airlines Thursday vowed to keep the airline at full throttle and cover 100 percent of its schedule if union mechanics and cleaners walk off the job a week from today.

The airline said it has fully trained and qualified replacement mechanics ready to deploy where needed, has additional vendors under contract to provide additional maintenance services and is fully staffed with extra flight attendants if any current ones refuse to cross the picket line of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA), which Northwest insists would be in violation of the flight attendants’ contract.

“We don’t anticipate any disruption in travel plans,” said Tim Griffin, executive vice president of marketing and distribution. “We will fly a full schedule. Normal ticket rules will be in place. If there is a [flight] irregularity, we’ll handle it just like we handle it now. It’ll be business as usual.”

In a 60-minute briefing with reporters, Griffin, CEO Doug Steenland and Executive Vice President of Operations Andy Roberts provided the airline’s first detailed look at how it intends to operate if the Aug. 19 strike deadline results in an AMFA walkout.

At issue is Northwest’s demand that AMFA labor costs be reduced by $176 million, which would lower the union’s job count from 4,427 to 2,450 and result in annual pay cuts of about 25 percent.

Steenland suggested Thursday that a severance package to ease the financial burden of laid-off mechanics could be part of the equation.

NWA mechanic Steve Nelson rallies at Capitol.David BrewsterStar Tribune"That has been a feature of negotiations that has taken place at other airlines” in the same financial situation, Steenland said.

“That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” said Ted Ludwig, president of AMFA Local 33. “That’s something for the negotiating committee.” Contract negotiations between Northwest and AMFA are scheduled to resume Monday in Washington, D.C.

As for the business-as-usual prediction by management, Ludwig said, “That’s going to be hard for them. It’s not even business as usual now, and we haven’t walked off the property yet.”

In the briefing, Roberts said Northwest has about 1,500 replacement mechanics ready to work, including 350 Northwest salaried and management workers. Northwest also has another 400 mechanics available at third-party vendors. He vowed that safety is not a concern.

“Any individual who touches a Northwest aircraft will be fully trained in the Northwest maintenance program,” Roberts said. “Some were furloughed from other airlines. Some are from vendors that already work on Northwest equipment. ... We recruited from a rather large pool the best we could get. They’re certainly not off the street.”

Northwest also has 1,500 backup flight attendants ready to fly if current ones stay home. The backups include recalled previously furloughed flight attendants and those who postponed scheduled vacations later this month. The airline even qualified interpreters on Pacific flights as flight attendants for flights to Asia.

“This does not involve us doing anything different from what we are doing today,” Steenland said.

Steenland declined to identify the operational issues that caused Northwest to use charter carrier Champion Air for a round-trip flight earlier in the week. The Air Line Pilots Association, which strenuously protested the flight as an infringement of its contract, said late Thursday that the company had agreed to “cease and desist” using Champion to fly Northwest routes.