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Northwest Applauds Congress' Passage of Legislation That Saves Employees' Pension Benefits

Posted on: Friday, 4 August 2006, 00:00 CDT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northwest Airlines tonight applauded Congress' passage of pension reform legislation that will save the pension benefits of 73,000 current and former Northwest employees.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060421/NWALOGO )

The Pension Protection Act was passed by the U.S. Senate tonight, and the U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation on July 28, 2006. The bill will now proceed to the White House for the President's signature.

"On behalf of the 73,000 participants in Northwest Airlines' pension plans, and the families that depend on them, we thank all of the members of the House and the Senate that supported this important legislation," said Doug Steenland, president and chief executive officer.

"While there have been many people involved in this effort, Northwest and its employees would like to especially thank the broad, bi-partisan coalition of legislators including Senator Trent Lott of Miss., Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Max Baucus of Mont., Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tenn., Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee Chairman Mike Enzi of Wyo., Senate HELP Committee Ranking Member Ted Kennedy of Mass., as well as Senators Norm Coleman of Minn., Jay Rockefeller of W. Va., Debbie Stabenow of Mich., Byron Dorgan of N.D. and Johnny Isakson of Ga.

"In the U.S. House of Representatives, we would like to especially thank Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas of Calif., House Majority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, as well as Representatives Dave Camp, Vern Ehlers, Pete Hoekstra, Fred Upton and John Dingell of Mich., and John Kline, Jim Oberstar, Mark Kennedy, Jim Ramstad and Betty McCollum of Minn."

Northwest and its unions negotiated pension plan freezes, which would also freeze the liability for the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), leading to a company-wide grass roots effort to support passage of legislation to save their retirement benefits. In addition to the tens of thousands of letters, phone calls, e-mails and faxes that employees sent, Northwest pilots, flight attendants and airport staff asked members of Congress to support the legislation during Northwest flights and while they were passing through airports.

On July 18, nearly 300 employees traveled to Washington on scheduled and specially-chartered flights to make one last appeal to save their pensions, participating in 100 different meetings with congressional offices.

"With employees making the difficult decision and sacrifice to freeze their pension plans, all of us looked to Congress for the additional time required to save our plans," said Andrea Fischer Newman, senior vice president of government affairs. "Tonight, the legislative branch of our government has spoken and protected airline employees' retirement benefits and U.S. taxpayers."

"Tonight's vote is an important victory for our employees and a key milestone in the restructuring of our company," said Steenland. "We believe that fully honoring these commitments is the right thing to do, and we thank our unions and the many employees who worked in partnership with us to save these retirement benefits. We now look to the White House and the President to bring our three year effort to a successful conclusion."

Northwest Airlines is the world's fifth largest airline with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam, and approximately 1,200 daily departures. Northwest is a member of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that offers customers one of the world's most extensive global networks. Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 900 cities in excess of 160 countries on six continents.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060421/NWALOGO

Northwest Airlines

CONTACT: Northwest Media Relations: +1-612-726-2331

Web site: http://www.nwa.com/

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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