Northwest Pilots Drop Recall of Leader Who Endorsed Pay Cuts

April 26, 2006
The possibility of Mark McClain's recall was being watched as a barometer of pilot support for the tentative agreement between the carrier and the union, which averted a possible strike.

Leaders of the Northwest Airlines pilots union have dropped, for now, their effort to oust chairman Mark McClain over frustrations with the pay cuts he has endorsed to keep the bankrupt airline aloft.

The possibility of McClain's recall was being watched as a barometer of pilot support for the tentative agreement between the carrier and the union, which averted a possible strike. Voting on the agreement runs through May 3.

Just last week, seven of the 12 voting members of the Master Executive Council called a special meeting to consider recalling McClain, who has led the union since 1999.

Eagan-based Northwest Airlines Corp. began looking for union givebacks in 2003, saying it needed them to stay out of bankruptcy. McClain, alone among Northwest's union leaders, agreed the cuts were necessary. By 2004 pilots had agreed to a 15 percent wage reduction and said they'd take deeper cuts if other unions did, too.

They didn't. Northwest flew through a mechanic's strike in August and filed for bankruptcy protection the next month.

In bankruptcy, Northwest got its largest unions - ground workers, flight attendants, and pilots - to send concessionary contracts out for votes. Pilot negotiators made their deal on March 3.

But since then, Northwest baggage handlers voted down their own wage-cut deal to hold out for something better. And pilots at Delta Air Lines Inc. made a wage-cut deal that still leaves them with average pay that's 10 percent higher than at Northwest, according to an analysis by Mark Streeter at J.P. Morgan.

The deal would have first-year Northwest pilots earning about $27,000, up to about $159,000 for an experienced 747 captain, the union said. All the first-year pilots have been laid-off, though.

Besides the pay cuts, the agreement with Northwest allows it to start a subsidiary to fly small jets.

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