NWA, union return to talks

08/16/2005

Liz Fedor,
Star Tribune
August 16, 2005

With a Friday strike deadline hanging over their heads, negotiators for Northwest Airlines and its mechanics union returned to the bargaining table Monday in Washington, D.C.

After losing more than half of its Northwest members during the past four years, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) is concerned about protecting remaining jobs.

“We hope Northwest will finally take the negotiating process seriously and stop proposing terms the airline knows have zero chance of being approved by our members,” O.V. Delle-Femine, AMFA’s national director, said Monday at the outset of talks held at the National Mediation Board’s headquarters.

Neither side divulged details of what was discussed at the negotiating table Monday.

But a key issue is whether the two sides can cobble together a tentative agreement that a majority of AMFA members would support. “Northwest has refused to abandon its initial proposal that would require AMFA members to approve a contract in which 53 percent of them would lose their jobs,” Delle-Femine said.

While AMFA leaders want to save as many jobs as possible, it’s unclear whether they can coax Northwest to embrace AMFA job protections at the bargaining table.

Two factors could weigh heavily on how or whether the jobs issue is resolved:

First, some AMFA members who have retired or been laid off by the airline are eligible to vote on a tentative agreement with Northwest. That could complicate the outcome of any contract ratification vote.

Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of AMFA, said Monday that AMFA election rules state that members in good standing can vote. To be eligible to vote on a tentative agreement, a person must be current on paying dues. For example, an AMFA member who retired six months ago could still vote on a tentative agreement as long as he or she continued to pay AMFA dues. People who got laid off and accepted severance payments also could vote on a tentative agreement if they are current on union dues payments.

Second, a mechanic and former union negotiator, who was at the table when mechanics accepted concessions in 1993, told the Star Tribune in an interview Monday that some mechanics are willing to voluntarily leave Northwest if they are given severance payments as incentives.

Mike Hurley, 49, a Twin Cities-based aircraft general inspector at Northwest, said that such severance payments could be a central element toward solidifying a deal at the bargaining table.

Numbers game

When the last Northwest mechanics contract was reached in May 2001, 9,795 AMFA members were on the payroll.

As of Aug. 1, Northwest said the AMFA workforce had fallen to 4,427—down from 5,294 in April because of layoffs and retirements.

Said AMFA’s MacFarlane: “We have taken a brutal beating already, and we are trying to preserve as many jobs as we can.” All of these workforce numbers are key because Northwest told AMFA negotiators in May that its goal was to increase outsourcing and reduce AMFA’s payroll to 2,454 people.

When AMFA leaders walked away from the bargaining table Aug. 3, they said Northwest’s offer to guarantee 75 percent of the AMFA jobs was inadequate because the protections kicked in only after Northwest reduced the workforce.

They also said the company was willing to protect jobs only as long as the individuals stayed with the company; the union seeks guarantees for the positions themselves.

The issue of severance payments was raised by Hurley, the former union negotiator, in a letter to the editor published Aug. 7 in the Star Tribune.

Hurley, who has worked at Northwest for 23 years, was a union negotiator for the International Association of Machinists (IAM) in 1993, the last time Northwest mechanics accepted concessions.

Hurley said, “It’s a reality that Northwest is going to cut the number of employees they’ve got.”

A former IAM Local 1833 president for six years, Hurley said he is not attempting to inject himself into the negotiations.

But he added that he and some other AMFA members who work in the Twin Cities see value in the idea of offering everybody 26 weeks of severance payments.

“There are a lot of people willing to leave with proper incentives,” Hurley said. “I’m a pragmatist,” he said, adding that a blanket severance offer would prompt some of the most senior mechanics to leave Northwest.

“There are a number of junior people who need to stay [to support their families] and a number of people at a point in their lives who’d be willing to leave,” said Hurley, who added that he’s shared his idea with some of the AMFA negotiators.

During a news briefing Thursday, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland talked about the value of severance payments in helping employees make the transition to new jobs.

In a prepared statement Monday, Northwest executives said they were pleased that talks had resumed. Northwest said it wanted to reach an agreement before the strike deadline that is fair to employees “while allowing Northwest to stem its record operating losses.”

The carrier has lost about $3.6 billion since early 2001 and it has been hit hard by high fuel prices.