Mesaba Makes a Deal with Mechanics

Mesaba Aviation Inc. agreed Tuesday on a tentative deal with its mechanics, the last of its workers who had resisted pay cuts.

Pilots and flight attendants at the feeder for Northwest Airlines Corp. made their own deals over the weekend. All three tentative agreements must be approved by workers to become final.

The terms of the deals have not been disclosed.

Mesaba said it needed the labor deals so it could compete for regional flying for Northwest. And it needed the deals in the short run so it could get access to a $24 million debtor-in-possession loan that was contingent on the labor deals.

Mesaba spokeswoman Elizabeth Costello said they agreed on the deal with mechanics at about 2 a.m. Tuesday. Several other rounds of talks had lasted all night.

Mesaba, a unit of MAIR Holdings Inc., filed for bankruptcy protection last fall, about a month after Northwest, its only customer. A bankruptcy judge gave Mesaba permission to impose cuts that would slice its labor expenses by 17.5 percent.

When unions said that would prompt a strike, the same judge blocked them from walking out. The deals followed soon after that. In any case, Mesaba negotiated instead of imposing the pay cuts.

'This has been a complicated and difficult process but working together we have been able to reach a solution that addresses the company's needs and the mechanics' interests,' said Mesaba President and Chief Operating Officer John Spanjers. He said the three agreements are 'another vital step toward Mesaba's successful restructuring.'

Mesaba flies to 88 cities, funneling passengers into Northwest hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis and Memphis. Its fleet once numbered about 100 planes, including regional jets, but Northwest has reduced that to 49 prop-driven planes.

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