ST. PAUL, Minn. -- With a date in bankruptcy court to explore rejecting union contracts set to begin today, Northwest Airlines says it's willing to back off some of its demands, hoping to get deals done with negotiators for its pilots and flight attendants.
If the two sides can't reach agreements, though, Judge Allan Gropper could soon undo existing contracts and impose new ones.
To win deals with its unions, Northwest says it could drop plans to create a subsidiary airline that would fly 70- and 100-seat planes, and also reduce its push to outsource many of the 34,000 jobs left at the carrier.
``All of these changes together clearly constitute good faith negotiations,'' the airline said in a late Friday filing meant to counter union arguments that it has refused to budge in contract talks.
Negotiations between Northwest and the Air Line Pilots Association and Professional Flight Attendants Association continued Monday. And they may go on during the court hearing, which could spill into next week.
``There has been no significant movement at the table,'' pilots union spokesman Will Holman said Monday.
Flight attendants union spokeswoman Karen Schultz said Monday that her group hopes to reach a deal with the airline but is ready to go to court if it doesn't.
The pilots and flight attendants are threatening to strike if Northwest -- or Gropper -- pushes them too far.
But Northwest says the unions could not legally strike under an imposed contract, which would no doubt contain a no-strike provision to assuage the anxieties of future lenders.
The airline could be looking to borrow $6 billion or more to renew its aging fleet of planes, it said.
Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest insists it can't wait any longer for the unions to fork over their share of the $1.4 billion in labor savings it wants.
The unions, however, argue that Northwest is asking for wage and other cuts that are much deeper than it needs.
Meanwhile, Northwest, which has lost billions of dollars in recent years, warns it is running out of money. It has only about $1.2 billion in cash left, it said in its most recent filing.
It asks Gropper to reject its collective bargaining agreements with the pilots and flight attendants.
It mentions the International Association of Machinists, the union for its baggage handlers, clerks and other ground workers, too.
But it reached a possible settlement with that union late Friday.
Northwest says it's willing to offer job assurances to pilots who worry that the new small-jet airline could cost them up to 1,500 jobs.
In fact, Northwest says it has offered not to create the new airline if the pilots agree to let lower-paying regional affiliates fly Northwest jets with fewer than 77 seats.
Northwest argues that all its peers outsource such flying to regional carriers. Anyway, the new airline could provide about 800 jobs for Northwest pilots who would otherwise be laid off, Northwest says.
With flight attendants, Northwest says it's willing to have newly hired foreign flight attendants provide half the staffing on international flights departing from the United States, down from a demand for 75 percent.
The union has estimated that Northwest's domestic and international outsourcing proposals could cost about 4,500 members their jobs.
Northwest says it could better serve many of its customers, and save more than $40 million a year, by hiring foreign flight attendants.
Northwest did not shed much light on its tentative deal with the machinists. It just says it agreed to ``scale back its proposal for outsourcing'' and offer ``an alternative that did not include GroundCo,'' the new firm that would have handled ground operations outside of the airline's Twin Cities and Detroit hubs.
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