Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Brandy Baker / The Detroit News Leaders of the flight attendants union say they haven't decided whether to support a job action by mechanics. The Federal Aviation Administration requires a certain number of attendants per flight.

Flight attendants hold key to Northwest strike

By Joel J. Smith / The Detroit News

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Flight attendants at Northwest Airlines Corp. have emerged as a crucial X factor in the standoff between the carrier and its mechanics union.

The airline's 4,430 mechanics could strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday if union leaders can't reach a deal with Northwest. The key question is whether Northwest's 10,400 flight attendants will support the mechanics or cross the picket lines.

Northwest, Detroit Metro Airport's largest carrier, says it can operate with replacement mechanics without missing a beat. But replacing thousands of flight attendants without canceling flights would be far more difficult. The Federal Aviation Administration requires a certain number of attendants per flight.

The Professional Flight Attendants Association is conducting a strike vote of its members that will conclude shortly before midnight Friday.

"The flight attendants are the wild card," said Vaughn Cordle, CEO and chief analyst of AirlineForecasts, a Washington, D.C., area-based consulting company. "If the flight attendants honor the mechanics' picket line, Northwest will be forced to throw in the towel and file for bankruptcy. If large numbers support the mechanics, Northwest won't be able to fly."

Northwest, which understands the importance of the flight attendants being on the job, is playing hardball with their union. The nation's fourth-largest airline contends the flight attendants' contract forbids its workers from honoring picket lines by other workers.

Julie Hugen-Showers, Northwest's vice president of labor relations, sent each flight attendant a sharply worded e-mail over the past weekend warning them to show up for work as scheduled.

"Any flight attendant who fails to report for duty as scheduled on or after 12:01 a.m. (EDT) on August 20 may be subject to discipline under the Agreement for failure to report, and may also be permanently replaced," Hugen-Showers wrote.

She further told them that since Northwest had recalled all of its furloughed flight attendants, it didn't anticipate any openings soon.

Northwest officials have a contingency plan to bring in 1,500 replacement mechanics and to contract with third-party vendors to fill the remaining Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association jobs if its labor union breaks off contract talks and goes on strike Saturday.

Northwest is hopeful any sympathy support from flight attendants if there's a strike will be small. It has 1,500 newly trained flight attendants standing by to replace workers who refuse to report for work.

The mechanics union and Northwest have been huddled in negotiations with a federal mediator in Washington, D.C, for two days. Northwest insists it needs $176 million in annual concessions from the union as part of an overall $1.1 billion in employee cutbacks to avoid bankruptcy. The airline has sustained $3.6 billion in operating losses since 2001.

The two sides broke off talks at 9 p.m. Tuesday after a full day of bargaining. Negotiations were scheduled to resume today.

Leaders of the flight attendants say they haven't decided whether to support a job action by mechanics.

"Just because we're taking a strike vote now doesn't mean we will strike immediately," said Peter Fiske, a flight attendant union executive. "We're keeping all our options open. We have to get past this vote. We might not even strike. That's part of our whole strategy.

Fiske said his union's strategy might include not even releasing the vote totals after they are counted to keep things up in the air for a while.

The flight attendant union told its membership that federal law does allow them to participate in a sympathy strike. Flight attendant officials called the e-mail from Northwest an attempt to threaten its members' rights.

Joel Denney, an analyst with U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray in Minneapolis, agrees the flight attendants hold the trump card in the mechanics' labor issue.

"But Northwest has a history of enforcing the contract to the letter with flight attendants," Denney said. "Now Northwest is telling them they need to be careful about pushing that line."

Analysts aren't so sure how many flight attendants will want to honor a picket line by the mechanics. United Parcel Service Inc. pilots said Tuesday that they won't fly planes carrying cargo shifted from Northwest if the airline's mechanics go on strike.

With Northwest officials adamant about gaining a total of $1.1 billion in cutbacks from workers, they argue if flight attendants help the mechanics reduce the $176 million in cuts, Northwest could in turn seek that money from the flight attendants.

While the other two major Northwest unions -- the 5,500 pilots group and the 14,400 ground workers in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers -- have not publicly said whether they will support a mechanics strike.

But the pilots union has publicly told the mechanics to accept pay concessions to save the airline and is worried about losing pension benefits if the airline ends up in bankruptcy.

The mechanics and the machinists unions are bitter enemies. It was the mechanics union that raided the IAM in 1998 to take the mechanics and airplane cleaners away from it to form their own Northwest unit.

The AMFA asked for support several weeks ago, but got a terse reply from IAM officials, saying "it would be very difficult for any IAM member to stand with your organization."

"It's a crisis for a lot of employees," Denney said. "But I'm a strong believer Northwest will get its cuts and be a strong survivor in the end."

You can reach Joel J. Smith at (313) 222-2556 or jsmith@detnews.com.