Jobs at Major Air Carriers Vanishing in Mass Layoffs

Bob Hansen used to fix airplanes, now he refuses to get on one. And he no longer talks to friends he left behind when he was laid off at Northwest Airlines two years ago.

"I don't want to hear about it anymore," he said. Northwest Airlines two years ago.

For the first year after the layoff, he tried to think big. He took classes in entrepreneurship and landed financing to buy an auto parts business. Then he backed away. "I just figured, I'm not that big of a gambler," said Hansen, 44, of Forest Lake. Northwest Airlines two years ago.

Now he works on machines that make metal castings at a Blaine foundry. The pay is much less than he was making at Northwest. A foundry doesn't offer perks like free flights. Northwest Airlines two years ago.

But those jobs at Northwest and other major air carriers are vanishing in waves of mass layoffs. Northwest Airlines two years ago.

At Northwest, the latest round of cuts means an additional 600 mechanic jobs will be gone in the Twin Cities by this summer. That means about 45 percent of 9,300 mechanics and related workers employed by the company just four years ago will have lost their jobs.

And more cuts could be on the way: Northwest, in contract talks with the union representing mechanics, has proposed eliminating 2,000 more jobs, with some 1,200 of those cuts aimed at the Twin Cities.

It all means there are a lot of Bob Hansens out there, workers who've discovered that a layoff or furlough, as it's called in the airline game is anything but temporary.

"The jobs have permanently disappeared," said Ted Ludwig, president of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association at Northwest.

Like most other airlines, Northwest has been sending an increasing amount of its aircraft maintenance work to outside contractors in the U.S. and Asia while slashing its in-house mechanic work force.

For Northwest, which has lost about $3 billion on its operations since the start of 2001, outsourcing is a key component of its strategy to cut costs and compete with industry rivals. Many of those rivals, particularly low-fare carriers such as Southwest, have outsourced aircraft maintenance much more extensively than Northwest.

"It's the economics,'' said Steven Casley, principal and co-founder of the Back Aviation Solutions consulting firm. "You've got high-quality third-party providers in more rural parts of the country, where the cost of living is lower. They can have cheaper labor rates.''

Not long ago, fixing aircraft for a major airline was a plum job. Mechanics could earn north of $70,000, with great benefits and seemingly iron-clad job security. State officials saw it as a key to economic growth: They envisioned hundreds of new mechanic jobs in Duluth. At the request of Northwest, state technical schools ramped up training programs for future mechanics.

Then came an industry slowdown, the Sept. 11 attacks, war in Iraq, bird flu in Asia, and eye-popping jet-fuel price spikes.

The mechanics who remain with Northwest tend to be a bit gray about the temples. Their average age is now 53. Very few are under 40.

The gray hair isn't all from age. Working under uncertain conditions in a volatile industry is stressful, workers say.

Val Hardy, 49, of Coon Rapids, has worked 16 years with Northwest Airlines but that's not enough seniority to save his job. He expects to be laid off Aug. 1. Meanwhile, he said, morale is low. "At least I know where I'm headed."

Hardy has had some time to plan. He ticked through a list of new jobs he has considered: dental hygienist, X-ray technician, and nurse. His latest idea is to go back to school, get a master's degree in clinical psychology and eventually become a therapist. "Life will go on," he said. "I have to keep trying to remember, the Lord will provide."

Perhaps, but in smaller quantities. Whether mechanics find completely new careers or land similar jobs in an industry that has shed so many jobs, many have had to face major cuts in pay.