Northwest Airlines Corp. and the new union that represents its flight attendants planned to negotiate on Tuesday, in a final effort to reach a deal before a deadline set by a bankruptcy judge.
Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper has ruled that Northwest can unilaterally change the flight attendant contract on July 17 if the two sides don't agree to new terms by then. An imposed contract could prompt a strike.
Talks with the flight attendants have been under way for months, but Tuesday's meeting will involve a new set of negotiators for the Association of Flight Attendants. The carrier's cabin workers voted out their old union and switched to the AFA on Friday. In a hot line message to members, the AFA said its lead negotiator would be David A. Borer, its chief lawyer.
The AFA has said it wants to make a deal with Northwest, but would consider calling for a strike if the airline changes the flight attendant contract without getting flight attendants to agree. Northwest has said a strike would be illegal and that it would seek a court order to halt one.
Last month 80 percent of those workers rejected an agreement between Northwest and their old union, the Professional Flight Attendants Association.
Northwest, the fifth-largest U.S. airline, has said it needs $1.4 billion (euro1.1 billion) a year in labor savings to reorganize. Flight attendants are the only union workers at Northwest without a new contract. Until one takes effect, the new contracts with pilots and ground workers won't take effect either.
Meanwhile, Mesaba Airlines, a Northwest feeder carrier that is also reorganizing in bankruptcy court, moved closer to concluding its own labor negotiations. On Monday, spokeswoman Elizabeth Costello said Mesaba expects a bankruptcy court judge to rule Friday on its request to throw out the union contracts of its pilots, flight attendants and mechanics. She said talks with all three unions are planned for this week.
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