Northwest Airlines flight attendants said on Tuesday that they have started a 15-day countdown toward a strike on the night of Aug. 15, putting the bankrupt carrier at risk for even worse financial problems.
The Association of Flight Attendants made the threat after Northwest imposed a new contract that 80 percent of flight attendants had rejected in June. Flight attendants rejected a second agreement on Monday.
The union has said its job actions could range from limited, brief work stoppages to a full-fledged strike. The airline doesn't believe that's legal.
"A strike or work action by AFA flight attendants would be illegal under the Railway Labor Act," which governs airline workers, Northwest spokesman Bill Mellon said. He said the airline would seek a court order to block a strike, but it had not done so as of Tuesday morning.
Eagan-based Northwest, the fifth-largest U.S. airline, filed such a motion earlier this year when the flight attendants' previous union threatened a strike, but the judge never acted on it.
Union spokeswoman Corey Caldwell said job actions could begin at 10:01 p.m. on Aug. 15, when a 15-day warning period promised by the AFA's predecessor union expires. The union started the clock ticking with a letter to the airline at 10 p.m. Monday.
On Monday, Northwest's roughly 9,000 flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement negotiated by their union leaders - the second time in two months they had voted down such a deal. Northwest already had permission from its bankruptcy judge to impose the contract that flight attendants rejected in June, and on Monday it did so.
Northwest has sought $1.4 billion in annual labor savings as it reorganizes. Flight attendants were its last union without a wage-cutting contract. But deals with pilots and ground workers were on hold until the new flight attendant contract took effect on Monday.
Copyright: The Associated Press WorldStream -- 8/02/06
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