Union gets jobs from its rival at Northwest (!)

[Charles Brown <cbrown@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Union gets jobs from its rival at Northwest (!)

August 25, 2005

BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Northwest Airlines ensured that its 15,000 baggage handlers, ticket agents
and other ground workers would remain on the job Wednesday, and that its
planes would keep flying through a mechanics strike, by taking work away
from the mechanics union and giving it to the ground workers union.

The coveted tasks include filling planes with drinking water and emptying
lavatory holding tanks.

Northwest told the International Association of Machinists it could take
over those tasks after union officials warned their continued cooperation
depended on it.

"This was always our work," said Bobby De Pace, district president
representing most of Northwest's ground workers. "We're just trying to get
back what was ours."

De Pace's union is a rival of the striking Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal
Association, which lured machinist members away in the late 1990s. Getting
the machinists union to cross AMFA's picket lines was a crucial part of
Northwest's plan to defy the strike and operate a full schedule of flights.

When the strike began Saturday morning, ground workers immediately began
doing some of the mechanics' chores, including pulling and guiding planes
from gates, and cleaning planes on domestic routes.

These were tasks machinist members used to perform.

Northwest initially hired a company with nonunion workers to replenish
drinking water and empty lavatories on its planes. Now that work also will
go to the machinists.

De Pace wasn't sure exactly how many jobs the machinists might gain from
assuming, or in his view, reassuming that work. But more work often means
more jobs for union members assigned to those tasks.

Without the agreement, De Pace said: "There would have been a lot of unhappy
people," including travelers.

Rumors swirling among Northwest workers Wednesday morning said the
machinists union was poised to pull its workers off the job at 1 p.m.,
making it virtually impossible for Northwest to fly more than a handful of
planes.

But around noon, Stephen Gordon, president of machinists Local 141 at
Detroit Metro, said an agreement was reached on staffing the lavatory and
drinking water trucks.

Bob Rose, president of the striking AMFA Local 5 at Metro, said, "Right now,
we're off the property. They should get it," referring to the available
work. "But if we get back on, we should get it back."

De Pace said the machinists want to keep the work even if AMFA and Northwest
settle their dispute.

Northwest's chief executive officer, Doug Steenland, said, "I think we have
a history of sitting down with the IAM in a collaborative and constructive
manner." He said he didn't know any details about the work dispute or how it
was resolved Wednesday.

At about 4 p.m. Wednesday, Steenland said the airline had completed 98% of
the day's scheduled flights and more than 80% were on time, a performance
comparable to that before the strike. This is the second time since just
before the strike that Northwest has agreed to give a union, crucial to
flying a full schedule, something it has asked for. A little more than a
week before the mechanics went on strike, Northwest stopped using charter
carrier Champion Air after pilots were outraged the airline used another
company's crew to fly Northwest passengers.

Northwest is losing an average of $4 million a day because of soaring fuel
costs, fare pressures and the industry's highest labor costs. The Egan,
Minn.-based carrier has lost more than $3 billion since 2001.

To avoid bankruptcy, the nation's fourth-largest carrier says its unions
must help it cut $1.1 billion a year in costs.

Northwest's 4,400 mechanics and plane cleaners struck after Northwest
demanded to eliminate nearly half of their jobs and impose a 25% pay cut on
those who remained.


RELATED CONTENT
*       NWA gets what it wanted
<http://www.freep.com/money/business/nwa-bar125e_20050825.htm>


Competing unions at Northwest
*       The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers
represents 2,700 baggage handlers, ramp workers and customer service agents
at Detroit Metro Airport. Altogether at Northwest, the union represents
nearly 15,000 employees. The union is in mediated negotiations with the
airline, which seeks $107 million in annual concessions from the machinists.


*       The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association represents 4,400
striking employees who had been fixing aircraft and ground vehicles, such as
trucks that carry luggage to planes, and cleaning planes. The union walked
off the job early Saturday, protesting $176 million in annual concessions
the airline sought. The airline has hired replacements.



Contact JEWEL GOPWANI at 313-223-4550 or gopwani@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx