Northwest’s Pilots Support Call for Strike

Members of the Northwest Air Line Pilots Assn. have voted to endorse the union leadership’s call for a strike against the airline, the union said Friday.

The union conceded, however, that the strike planned for today has been put off because of management’s decision Thursday to ask for federal mediation in the dispute. During this time, neither side can make any material changes in the current situation. This stops the union from beginning any walkout and stops the company from imposing a new contract.

The union represents 4,800 pilots at Northwest, the nation’s fifth-largest airline, which is owned by NWA Inc. of Minneapolis. Talks have been going on for 19 months and center on wage and benefit issues as well as seniority between pilots who worked at Republic Airlines, which was taken over by Northwest.

“Logistically, we were fully prepared to walk out, and our pilots have told us that they were ready. If mediation doesn’t work, we’ll likely find ourselves in another countdown to strike deadline.”

The union said the mediation process typically lasts anywhere from a few weeks to several months. If a mediator were to declare an impasse in negotiations and an offer for arbitration were rejected, a 30-day cooling-off period would follow.

After a cooling-off period, the union would be free to strike and management could impose its own wage scale and work rules and hire replacement workers.

NWA, parent company of Northwest Airlines, said in a statement Thursday that “by requesting mediation, we know that the status quo will be maintained for an indefinite period of time”

NWA said it has received no proposal from the union on seniority integration relating to the merger of Republic and Northwest.