Northwest Air Employees OK Proposed Pact
Mechanics and cleaners at Northwest Airlines easily approved a contract proposal reached after more than four years of negotiations and a near walkout against the nation’s fourth-biggest airline.
The contract would make Northwest’s mechanics the industry’s highest paid, upping their pay by an average of 24.4% over the four years. The pay of cleaners and custodians, who make up a very small part of the union, would rise an average of 13%.
Some 82.1% of union members voted to approve the contract via mail ballots; about 16.9% voted against it, it was announced Wednesday. The remaining 1% of the ballots were voided. Turnout was 94% among 9,333 eligible union voters.
The contract will be signed Friday at Northwest’s Eagan, Minn., headquarters. The four-year deal takes effect Saturday.
“We’re happy and relieved. It’s been a long time,” O.V. Delle-Femine, national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., said at a news conference at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. “This is an industry-changing contract.”
He said he hoped that AMR Corp.’s American Airlines and UAL Corp.’s United Airlines would give their workers even better terms.
In a brief statement, Northwest called the contract ratification “a new era” for the company and an end to a “demanding process for the airline, our employees and especially our customers.”
“Now we, the more than 55,000 Northwest employees worldwide, can focus all of our efforts on providing even better service to our customers,” said the statement from Northwest Chief Executive Richard Anderson and President Doug Steenland. “We are now committed to moving forward and operating the world’s best airline.”
Northwest shares fell 40 cents to close at $25 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Mechanics were poised to strike this spring and shut down Northwest before President Bush ordered a cooling-off period, saying he was concerned about a shutdown’s effect on the national economy. Northwest offered the latest contract proposal before the period expired.
Under the new contract, mechanics will more than double their pension rate to $85 per month per year of service. For cleaners and custodians, the pension rate increases to $51, from $27.77.
Delle-Femine said he anticipates the contract should have a minimal effect on consumers, saying the deal should represent less than a 5% increase in ticket prices.
In addition to wage improvements, the contract includes caps on how much work Northwest can give third-party vendors.
The contract gives workers a lump-sum retroactive payment equal to 3.5% of their wages since the October 1996 renewal date of the last contract. The union had wanted initial raises applied retroactively to the renewal date.
For an average mechanic, the retroactive pay will be about $10,000. For the average cleaner, the lump sum will be $6,603.
