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Northwest Airlines Demands Mechanics Accept Pay Cuts or Be Replaced

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 September 2005, 21:00 CDT

Sep. 8--In what appears to be a bid to move past a strike by its mechanics, Northwest Airlines has told the mechanics union it will begin hiring permanent replacement workers by Tuesday unless the union agrees to deeper cuts than those that led to the walkout last month.

Mediated talks between the union and Northwest are set to resume today in Minneapolis. It could be a quick session: Northwest has told the union its financial position has worsened since the 4,400 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off the job on Aug. 19. The Eagan-based carrier's last offer included 25 percent pay cuts and layoffs of close to 2,000 workers.

"While the company was prepared to stand behind that offer in order to obtain a consensual agreement, unfortunately we are no longer able to do so," said Julie Hagen Showers, Northwest's vice president for labor relations in a letter to the union's national director O.V. Delle-Femine.

The company had been seeking $1.1 billion in annual labor cost cuts from its unions, but has only succeeded in getting its pilots union to sign on. Now it says it likely needs more. Fuel prices have spiked in recent weeks, and the airline expects its 2005 fuel bill to be 50 percent higher than last year.

The letter said the company is functioning smoothly using licensed managers and temporary replacement workers, but needs to "adopt a permanent solution."

The company's ultimatum will put a lot more pressure on striking workers to cross the picket line and reclaim their jobs. Striking mechanics have a legal right to return to any position for which they're qualified, even to replace temporary workers, the letter said.

"They'd love to get people to cross the picket line but our members have more character and strength than that," said Jim Young, the lead negotiator for the mechanics union. "That's not going to happen."

Last week, Northwest warned that it was fast running out of time -- and money -- to solve its problems without filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Since the start of 2001, Northwest has lost about $3 billion on its operations. And lately, the carrier has been losing $4 million a day.

Many industry observers expect the airline's bankruptcy deadline will come before the middle of next month, when corporate bankruptcy laws change, making the process much less palatable for companies.

Some mechanics said they would never cross the picket line and would not return to work unless there was a negotiated settlement.

"I will not go back to work until we have a negotiated agreement through our union," said Chris Stenstrom, 42, a mechanic who lives in Webster, Minn., but last commuted to and from Detroit. "If that means losing my job with Northwest Airlines, so be it."

Ronald Giovanetti, 40, of Savage, a Northwest mechanic for nearly 18 years, has been sending out resumes to railroads and other carriers such as Southwest Airlines. .

"To go this soon to permanent replacements shows they are desperate," Giovanetti said. "They are desperate for qualified people and their management team is getting worn out."

Experts said the threat of permanent replacements is extreme and shows the company's desire to get rid of the union.

"They are going to present an offer that can't be accepted in bargaining," said Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. He contends that the union's best-case scenario is for Northwest to go into bankruptcy where contracts and terms would be dictated by a judge, not the company.

"It's pretty much an ultimatum," said John Budd, a labor-relations expert at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "I think people expected that Northwest sooner or later would say, 'We either settle or we hire permanent replacements.' It looks like Northwest is progressing to that next step."

If Northwest permanently replaces striking mechanics and cleaners, which also are represented by the union, strikers who later decide to return to work would only get their jobs back as positions open up, said Budd. They'd go on a recall list and they couldn't bump replacement workers out of jobs.

"Right now, Northwest can let a temporary replacement go to make room for a returning striker," said Budd. "But once Northwest has hired permanent replacements, it can't fire them to make room to bring back striking workers."

By Julie Forster and Martin J. Moylan

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NWAC,

Source: Saint Paul Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

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