Northwest Closes Baltimore Call Center; Can't Find Enough Help

Northwest Airlines will open a reservations call center in Sioux City, Iowa, and close one in Baltimore because it's having trouble finding workers there, the carrier said Tuesday.

The Iowa center is scheduled to open late this year and will employ up to 300 reservations sales agents and managers, the airline said.

It will close its Baltimore reservation center on March 31, 2008. The 183 workers there will have the option to transfer to other reservations centers. Northwest Corp. also runs reservation centers in Chisholm, Minn., Minneapolis, Seattle and Tampa, Fla.

"While this was a very difficult decision to make, it was necessary given the inability to retain and attract sufficient numbers of qualified staff at the Baltimore facility," said Northwest vice president of reservations sales and services, Perry Cantarutti.

Reservations agents and other Northwest workers have taken pay cuts as the airline reorganizes under bankruptcy protection. Their union blamed pay cuts for the job losses in Baltimore.

"Our brothers and sisters at the Baltimore Reservations Center deserve better," District 143 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said on its Web site on Tuesday. "They have become casualties of a contract wage that NWA insisted upon throughout negotiations."

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.