Northwest Airlines Corp. sued its flight attendants' union in an effort to block a strike that the company claims would jeopardize the bankrupt carrier's reorganization.
The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said yesterday it may strike Aug. 15, after its members rejected a contract proposal that would have cut pay and benefits by more than 40 percent.
Northwest said a strike would violate the federal Railway Labor Act, a law that governs labor relations in the airline and railroad industries.
The union disagrees. There's no legal precedent for whether a union has the right to strike under the act if new contract terms are imposed while a company is operating under bankruptcy protection.
"A strike by the AFA would threaten the continued viability of Northwest's reorganization, cause severe disruption to Northwest's customers, and interfere with interstate commerce," Northwest lawyer Kent Yalowitz said in a complaint filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan Tuesday night.
Northwest says a strike would put 34,000 jobs at risk, hurt customers in at least 23 cities and irreparably damage the airline.
Northwest, the No. 5 U.S. carrier, has said it needs to cut labor costs by $1.4 billion, the largest part of $2.5 billion in savings it's seeking to achieve to help the company emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection next year.
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