Northwest Airlines is demanding that its union flight attendants help train and work with "flight attendant candidates" who could replace them if they strike.
But their union, the Professional Flight Attendants Association, has sued Northwest in federal court to try to win a court order to block the training plan.
It argues that the plan violates the flight attendants' contract and the Railway Labor Act, which governs labor relations in the airline industry. Northwest maintains the suit is without merit.
"Northwest has a scheme to assign nonemployee candidates - scabs - to perform work reserved ... exclusively for its PFAA-represented flight attendants," said union attorney Nick Granath. " ... They have told the union, 'we will take these scabs and put them on your flights, and you better well cooperate while they do your work or you are subject to being terminated.'"
Northwest, the union says, is lining up replacement flight attendants because it's not sure if the PFAA will - or won't - urge its some 9,500 members to cross picket lines if the airline's mechanics strike next month. The mechanics union, in the midst of a 30-day "cooling off" period after a federally declared impasse, could strike or be locked out after 11:01 p.m. CDT Aug. 19.
