Mechanics Strike Northwest Airlines

Northwest Airlines brought replacement workers on the job Saturday after mechanics went on strike to protest big pay cuts and layoffs that would have cut their numbers almost in half.

The nation's fourth-largest carrier pledged to keep its planes in the air, saying it has been preparing for the strike for more than a year and a half, including lining up about 1,900 replacement workers, vendor employees and managers to fill shifts.

While striking mechanics ridiculed the idea that Northwest could fly without them, there were no signs of disruption in the day's earliest flights at the carrier's U.S. hubs in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Detroit and Memphis, Tenn.

Todd Olson showed up at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport with his family "extra, extra early" for a 9 a.m. flight to Disney World.

"So far it seems like it's going smoothly," Olson said. "We're more worried about our flight home next week."

However, Ebonique Gibson was anxious about her flight from Detroit to Missouri for her freshman year at college. "I'm just trying to get down there safe," she said.

A Northwest spokesman wasn't immediately available to comment on operations.

After months of talks broke off in Washington just before midnight Friday, union spokesman Jim Young said the mechanics would rather see the airline go into bankruptcy than agree to Northwest's terms. The Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association represents about 11 percent of Northwest's 40,000 workers.

It's the first major airline strike since Northwest pilots grounded the airline for 20 days in 1998. AMFA has struck only four times, most recently in 1980. In May, AMFA mechanics at bankrupt United Airlines threatened to strike but wound up accepting a 3.9 percent pay cut and fewer benefits.

"I knew this strike was going to happen," said Jim Oquist, a Northwest mechanic for more than 20 years who was picketing at the Twin Cities airport. "Imagine how you would feel if you had worked that hard for 20 years and they tear it all down."

The average Northwest mechanic wage is about $70,000. The company's request for $176 million in concessions would have amounted to about a 25 percent pay cut for mechanics who escaped job cuts. Northwest also sought 2,000 more layoffs _ almost halving a workforce that is already half the size it was in 2001.

The mechanics are striking alone. Pilots, flight attendants and other ground workers all said they would keep working, and a federal judge barred mechanics at Northwest regional carrier Mesaba Airlines from conducting a sympathy strike.

"Obviously, we would have like their support," Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of AMFA, said of the other unions. "Once Northwest is done with us they're going to go after them."

Northwest has said it needs $1.1 billion in labor savings from all its workers. Only pilots have agreed, accepting a 15 percent pay cut worth $300 million when combined with cuts for salaried employees.

In an Aug. 9 regulatory filing, the airline acknowledged the danger posed by a strike.

"Any labor action that results in a significant operational disruption, even for a short period of time, could have a severe detrimental impact on the Company's financial condition," it wrote, and that would "substantially increase the risk" that it would need to file for bankruptcy protection.

In a message to employees Saturday, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland said the airline would spend $3 billion on fuel this year _ 66 percent more than last year _ if fuel prices stay where they are. But he said Northwest is beginning its fall schedule earlier than usual, reducing capacity by about 17 percent.

Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest and its regional carriers operate more than 1,500 flights to 750 cities. It has hubs in Detroit, Minneapolis, Memphis, Tokyo, and Amsterdam.

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Associated Press writers Emily Johns in Minneapolis, Jim Irwin in Romulus, Mich., and Leslie Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

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On the Net:

Northwest Airlines: http://www.nwa.com

Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association: http://www.amfanatl.com