NW Airlines unions say they won’t be picked apart anymore
By MICHAEL KUCHTA
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. (PAI) —
Union leaders at Northwest Airlines
pledged Dec. 7 to stick together as
never before to save jobs and fight the
airline’s strategy of using bankruptcy as
an excuse to outsource thousands of
workers.
“There’s no sense saving Northwest
Airlines if we can’t save our jobs,” Capt.
Mark McClain told several hundred
workers during a rally in Bloomington,
Minn., near airline headquarters.
“Northwest Airlines is not manage-
ment’s airline — it’s our airline,” said
McClain, chairman of the Air Line Pi-
lots Association at Northwest, who
sounded a theme repeated in different
ways throughout the rally.
“All of us have been here many,
many years. We’re not going to save
Northwest Airlines for management,
we’re not going to save it for the board,
we’re not going to save it for the in-
vestors. We’re going to save it for all of
us.”
The unity among the Northwest Air-
lines unions is notable because it marks
a change of course. All but one of the
unions involved is an AFL-CIO union.
The exception is the independent Pro-
fessional Flight Attendants Association
(PFAA). It also had steered an inde-
pendent course during recent troubles.
Northwest’s other independent
union, the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal
Association — whose mechanics were
forced to strike four months ago — was
not there. But individual AMFA mem-
bers were at the meeting and distributed
literature.
Nevertheless, pilots, ground workers
and flight attendants stood shoulder to
shoulder at the rally to send a message
of solidarity — the most visible demon-
stration of union cooperation at the air-
line in a dozen years.
“We saw what happened on this
property with a more go-it-alone strat-
egy,” McClain said, making a not-so-
veiled reference to AMFA, which dis-
affiliated from the Machinists Union.
Other unions have not honored the
picket lines of that independent union,
which represents mechanics, cleaners
and custodians. They note it did not
honor their lines, and tried to raid them.
“That’s certainly not going to work,”
McClain said. “All of us sticking to-
gether, working together, is going to be
paramount for us to get through this en-
vironment.” But the unions face a Jan.
Union-Industries Show will proceed
under new name and new focus
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The AFL-
CIO Union-Industries Show — starting
this year in Cleveland — will be pro-
moted under the name “America@
Work,” followed by the tag line: “100%
Union-Made, American-Made Prod-
ucts, Services and Jobs.”
Exit surveys from the 2005 show in
Portland revealed that more than half the
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attendees were not union members, but
favored unions in general. They viewed
the show as a chance to demonstrate
their support for unions, to investigate
jobs and training opportunities and to
learn about union-made products and
services.
The 2006 show, slated for Cleveland,
Ohio, May 5-7, also will focus more on
educating the public about trade union-
ism and the role unions play in the eco-
nomic and political life of a community.
The show will highlight and encourage
people to join pro-worker organizations
such as the Alliance for Retired Ameri-
cans and Working America, both com-
munity organizations of the AFL-CIO.
17 court hearing where Northwest
could demand contracts end.
The speeches are more than rhetoric,
union leaders say: The pilots, Machin-
ists Air Transport District 143, PFAA
and smaller unions are meeting regu-
larly as a “labor advisory council” to
devise common strategies at the bar-
gaining table and beyond.
One reason for the new unity is that
members of all Northwest’s unions face
the threat of outsourcing. The most re-
cent manifestation of that was a com-
pany scheme to outsource all Flight At-
tendant jobs on overseas trips and on
planes with a capacity of 100 or fewer.
All overseas flights would be staffed by
foreign flight attendants.
The three large unions continue bar-
gaining with Northwest, facing a Jan.
16 deadline to reach agreements their
members can approve. Northwest says
that if the unions don’t agree to new
contracts, it will ask the bankruptcy
court to rip up existing contracts, allow-
ing the airline to impose its will on
workers. If that happens, unions say,
they have the right to strike, potentially
shutting Northwest down, perhaps for
good.
In its bankruptcy filings, Northwest
says it wants $997 million in conces-
sions from the three unions. The air-
line’s plan includes additional job cuts,
additional wage and benefit cuts, and
extensive outsourcing. Besides the
flight attendant outsourcing, it is de-
manding that non-union pilots fly
planes that carry fewer than 100 pas-
sengers and wants non-union ground
crews at most airports outside of Min-
neapolis-St. Paul and Detroit. Those
two airports are its two main hubs.
Management decided “to beat con-
cessions out of the employees who have
spent years building and bringing suc-
cess to Northwest Airlines,” said PFAA
Vice President Doug Moe. He re-
minded the crowd that while executives
“push for too much,” they still find
ways “to justify bonuses and rewards
for mediocre leadership.”
Speakers said it is up to workers to
support each other and save Northwest.
“We are workers, no matter who or
what you do for Northwest,” said
Bobby DePace, president of North-
west’s Machinists local. “We are work-
ers, and we will stand united and we
will stand together.”
Executives were “morally criminal”
at Northwest, said Minnesota AFL-CIO
Secretary-Treasurer Steve Hunter.
“When you place corporate greed over
the lives and families of your workers,
that is immoral and it is wrong.”
He called Northwest executives “in-
competent” and said the flying public
should “Thank God that all of you do
your jobs better than they do theirs.”
Workers should “come together as a
family: Hold each other up, keep each
other strong, be there for each other.”
“Don’t take the frustrations of this
environment out on each other,” Mc-
Clain said. “Keep Northwest Airlines
running as best we can. And we’ll run
Northwest Airlines — in spite of man-
agement.”
Three Change to Win unions
sign Solidarity Charters with
Metal Trades Department
Three unions affiliated with the Change to Win Coalition (CTW) have signed
Solidarity Charter agreements with the AFL-CIO’s Metal Trades Department. The
agreements with the Carpenters, Teamsters and United Food and Commercial
Workers allow the unions — which disaffiliated from the AFL-CIO — to remain
involved in the department at the local council level.
“We recognize the importance of sustaining our local leadership and maintain-
ing the longstanding relationships supporting our bargaining units,” said Metal
Trades Department President Ron Ault.
Service Employees International Union also is expected to sign a Solidarity
Charter agreement with the department.
In October, the CTW unions and the national AFL-CIO reached agreement on
a Solidarity Charter program to allow CTW locals to participate in state, area and
local AFL-CIO organizations.
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JANUARY 6, 2006
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
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