Mechanics Reach Tentative Pact With Northwest
Northwest Airlines Corp. and its mechanics union reached tentative contract agreement early Monday as a special Presidential Emergency Board was preparing to issue a report that would have basically imposed terms of a settlement on the two sides.
Details of the new agreement were unavailable pending ratification by the airline’s 9,795 mechanics, a process the union said would take about three weeks. The mechanics are represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn.
Richard Anderson, Northwest’s chief executive, said that when he assumed leadership of the airline in February, one of his priorities was to improve relationships with Northwest employees.
“We believe this tentative agreement with AMFA positively advances those goals,” Anderson said in a statement announcing the settlement.
O.V. Delle-Femine, AMFA national director, said he thought the agreement would be an industry leader for Northwest mechanics, but he said that probably wouldn’t last too long as agreements with other mechanics unions are negotiated later this year. “It’s like a baton race,” Delle-Femine said of the contract’s industry leadership status.
Mechanics at UAL Corp.’s United Airlines, who belong to the rival International Assn. of Machinists, are scheduled to resume negotiations Wednesday in Washington on a new contract United has promised will be an industry leader.
There has been speculation that the IAM has been waiting to see the terms of the AMFA contract at Northwest before agreeing on a new contract of their own. The IAM has denied this.
But the United negotiations could become complicated because AMFA filed a petition March 30 with the National Mediation Board to force a union representation election at United, saying it had the signatures of at least half of United’s 15,000 IAM mechanics.
If AMFA wins and ousts the IAM as representative of United’s mechanics, then AMFA would have to wait several years before it would get a chance to negotiate with United again on a new contract should United settle now with the IAM.
This is exactly what happened at Northwest several years ago when it ousted the IAM there after the membership voted down an initial agreement with the IAM. Northwest immediately halted all negotiations with the IAM as soon as AMFA filed its representation petition with the government, waiting the outcome of the representation election.
As a result, Northwest mechanics have been without a new contract for more than four years.
In the meantime, pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc. are scheduled to come to Washington on Monday to meet with mediators from the National Mediation Board in an effort to avoid a strike threat at 12:01 a.m. April 29.
The 10,000 members of the Air Line Pilots Assn. are free to strike then unless President Bush intervenes with the appointment of a special Presidential Emergency Board that would postpone any walkout for 60 days.
Flight attendants at AMR Corp.’s American Airlines are also in the final stages of negotiations with federal mediators, but they have not been released to strike. In the airline industry, federal law does not allow a union to strike until mediators determine there is an impasse and further bargaining would be useless.
