Attendants hope to get NWA back to bargaining table

Having soundly rejected a contract agreement Tuesday, Northwest Airlines flight attendants will urge a bankruptcy judge Friday to push management back to the bargaining table for more talks.

"The flight attendants have spoken loudly. The deal they rejected is one they see as onerous and disrespectful," Mark Richard, an attorney for the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA), said Wednesday.

Flight attendant leaders argue that there is time to negotiate a new contract. "We are hoping that the judge allows the parties to explore that possibility," Richard said.

Attorneys for Northwest and the attendants will meet with U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper for a status report. A tentative deal between the two sides that would have saved Northwest $195 million a year in labor costs was defeated by 80 percent of the flight attendants who voted.

Northwest has asked Gropper to rule on its motion to void the existing contract with the flight attendants and allow it to impose pay rates and work rules.

Gropper is not expected to issue a ruling Friday, but the judge might set a date for a hearing.

"It is imperative that the court rule as soon as possible to authorize rejection of PFAA's collective bargaining agreement," Northwest wrote in a brief filed Tuesday after the tentative agreement was rejected.

Northwest said it needs the savings from its labor groups to move forward with its restructuring. It stressed that it cannot implement concessions in its recently ratified agreement with its pilots until it also has cutbacks in place with the flight attendants and ground workers.

Today, Northwest flight attendants begin voting in a representational election. Over the next month, they will decide whether to retain the independent PFAA as their bargaining union or replace it with the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), a large AFL-CIO union. Simultaneously, they are deciding whether the PFAA should affiliate with the Transport Workers Union.

Unless the judge rules quickly, Northwest argued, negotiations with the PFAA or the AFA could "sink into a quagmire of further indeterminate delay."

"Our No. 1 strategy is to get back to the table with Northwest Airlines," said Karen Schultz, a PFAA executive board member. "We believe that imposing terms on an employee group that is already browbeaten is not a smart business decision."

But the airline hadn't budged from its stance by Wednesday afternoon, saying, "No talks are scheduled at this time."

Julius Maldutis, president of New York-based Aviation Dynamics, said Wednesday that he thinks Gropper "will take a very hard look at the company's improving financial situation" in deciding whether to allow the carrier to nullify its current attendant contract.

Northwest, which has constricted its capacity and is operating with nearly full planes, showed an operating profit of $80 million in March and $53 million in April.

Temporary pay cuts have been in place for flight attendants, pilots and ground workers since November.

Maldutis said Gropper may want to give the flight attendants and Northwest a short period of time to reach a deal.

If the airline gets permission to void the flight attendants' contract and then imposes terms, it would be a first in the industry. In the US Airways bankruptcy, the judge gave approval for a contract abrogation with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). But terms were not imposed and the two sides agreed on a new contract.

IAM employees at Northwest are winding up their voting on a tentative agreement that cuts their wages by 11.5 percent.

Bobby DePace, IAM District 143 president, said Wednesday that the flight attendants' rejection would have little effect on the IAM election because most IAM members had voted by Monday.

"It's going to be close," DePace said, but he did not venture a guess as to the IAM outcome. Vote results will be released Friday.

Liz Fedor • 612-673-7709