The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.22           June 7, 1999 
 
 
Northwest Airlines Flight Attendants: `We Will Strike'  

BY BILL SCHEER
ST. PAUL, Minnesota - Flight attendants at Northwest Airlines, members of International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 2000, are gearing up in the fight to get a new contract. A number of them are staffing information offices, wearing "I will strike" tags, and participating in actions against the company. In addition, informational union meetings are taking place in cities around the country.

A strike authorization vote is currently taking place. If approved, the measure would enable the union officials to call a strike. "Everyone I talked to is voting yes," said Northwest flight attendant Vicki Jahner. "We are angry we have not gotten our share," said Jahner, who has four years with the company. "Everyone is fed up."

The main issues in the dispute are retirement pay, wage increases, and job security on the company's Asian routes. The union local, with 11,000 flight attendants, has been working under a contract extension for two years and eight months. In the previous contract, signed in 1993, the local gave up significant pay concessions when the company cried poverty.

The union has not won a pay increase in a contract since 1986. Northwest Airlines has made record profits in four of the last five years. The three top company officers have cashed in stock options for tens of millions of dollars in the last few years.

Last September members of the different unions at Northwest Airlines won more self-confidence when the pilots landed significant concessions at the end of a 15-day strike, which shut down the operations of the company. Earlier in the summer a work-to-rule campaign and overtime ban had been organized by members of the International Association of Machinists (IAM), including mechanics, cleaners, and baggage handlers. This resulted in delayed and canceled flights. Spokespersons for the company say that between the pilots' strike and the summer job action the company lost nearly $1 billion.

The company then claimed that "settling with the unions is priority number one." However, eight months later neither the flight attendants nor the cleaners and mechanics have contracts.

Members of the IAM who are baggage handlers and reservations agents approved a contract with the company two months ago.

According to Lynn Sokal, a flight attendant with nine years at the airline, union members are encouraging each other to work just their bid schedule - the minimum required - and to accept no upgrade routes or extra work. The company relies on this extra work to meet its schedule.

Sokal is a volunteer at the union's "Contract Action Team" (CAT) information office underneath a Northwest passenger gate at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. The office is staffed all day Wednesdays by volunteers. Flight attendants come to ask questions and to get leaflets to be passed out to other flight attendants.

Flight attendants have organized brief informational picket lines at some airports in the past months. Recently, a number of Northwest flight attendants organized a protest rally at the annual stockholders meeting in New York. Some 350 workers participated in a rally outside the meeting. Inside the meeting they peppered company chairman Gary Wilson with so many questions that the meeting was quickly adjourned.

Some flight attendants are working to get the support of the other unions at Northwest. Sokal says that she makes it a point to talk with the pilots about the issues in the fight and solicit their support. Sokal spoke to the May 13 meeting of IAM Local 1833, which comprises the mechanics, cleaners, customer service agents, clerical workers, and ramp workers at Northwest in the Twin Cities. Some ramp workers, mechanics, and cleaners wear buttons that express support for the flight attendants.

Mechanics and cleaners at the airline are without a contract also. After the job action last summer, the union membership of the IAM at Northwest overwhelming rejected a proposed contract that was supported by the IAM officials. Subsequently the mechanics and cleaners voted out the IAM and voted to be represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). The IAM has contested the election to the National Mediation board. A ruling is due soon.

The strike authorization vote has resulted in negotiations between the flight attendants and the company being moved up to May 20. Under the Railway Labor Act, which governs airline contract negotiations, no strike could take place unless the National Mediation Board declares an impasse in the contract negotiations. Even then the flight attendants would be barred from any job actions for 30 days.

Officials of the flight attendants' local are promoting the idea of a "CHAOS" strike against the company, where most workers stay on the job while a few participate in job actions to disrupt the airline's functioning. It is a variant of the "selective strike strategy" advocated by the AFL-CIO tops for years in place of an all-out work stoppage.

The strike authorization ballots will be counted and announced June 5.

Bill Scheer is a cleaner at Northwest Airlines and a member of IAM Local 1833.

 
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home