Strikes Could Hit 4 Major Airlines
The nation’s four largest airlines--American, Delta, Northwest and United--are faced with possible strikes this spring, which could result in massive cancellations and chaos in U.S. airline travel.
The four airlines carry about two-thirds of the 588 million domestic passengers on U.S. airlines each year. A series of overlapping strikes could disrupt spring-break travel and, if they were to drag on, cut into the summer travel season.
The nation could be faced with a labor situation unseen in the airline industry since the International Assn. of Machinists struck five airlines for seven weeks in the mid-1960s. Far fewer Americans traveled by air then, but the strikes still disrupted the country’s transportation networks as displaced travelers flooded onto trains and buses.
The prospect of major labor disruptions has drawn the attention of the White House, which last week began conferring with the National Mediation Board, the government agency that oversees labor relations in the airline industry.
In the next few months, Delta will have to settle with its pilots, American with its flight attendants, and United and Northwest with their mechanics. It is a fluke of events and timing that has led these contract negotiations to nearly simultaneous strike deadlines.
The initial talks have focused on the most immediate threat, a strike by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn. at Northwest, possibly as early as next month. Representatives of Northwest contacted the White House last week regarding the possibility of a strike.
Sources said Monday that the White House is considering the appointment of a presidential emergency board in the event of a strike at Northwest because the two sides are still so far apart. The appointment of an emergency board would force an end to the strike for 60 days while the board considered recommendations for a settlement.
But that would increase pressure on the White House to take similar action in the other disputes, effectively ending a long-standing policy of nonintervention in airline labor problems.
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, a Transportation secretary in the previous Bush administration, is handling the discussions for the new Bush administration.
In the meantime, negotiators for the mechanics’ union and Northwest met with mediators Monday at the National Mediation Board, but sources close to the talks said the sides are so far apart that they do not believe a settlement is possible.
At Delta, the airline’s nearly 10,000 pilots could be free to strike as early as April 1. The pilots are to announce the results of a strike authorization vote Friday.
American Airlines’ 22,600 flight attendants are scheduled to announce the results of a strike vote Feb. 21.
The situation at United, where the IAM is negotiating for the airline’s 15,000 mechanics, is complicated by the status of talks at Northwest, where mechanics are represented by AMFA, a rival mechanics’ union.
Two years ago, after getting nowhere in contract talks, the mechanics at Northwest voted out the IAM. As a result, the IAM feels its United contract cannot be seen as inferior to the one that AMFA members get from Northwest.
