MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- With its mechanics on strike, Northwest Airlines Corp. gets a test of its true ability to keep planes flying when its flight schedule returns to heavier weekday levels Monday.þþAbout 4,400 mechanics, cleaners and custodians walked off the job Saturday morning, the lightest flying day of the week with 1,215 flights.þþNorthwest operates 1,381 flights on Sundays and 1,473 on weekdays, company spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch said.þþIn anticipation of the strike, the nation's fourth-biggest carrier switched to its fall schedule Saturday, a week earlier than planned, lightening the schedule by about 17 percent.þþNorthwest also spent 18 months preparing for the strike, arranging for about 1,900 replacement workers, vendors and managers.þþBut airline consultant Scott Hamilton of Leeham Co. in Sammamish, Wash., predicted it will be harder for Northwest to maintain its weekday schedule.þþ''Sooner or later if the replacement mechanics can't keep on top of it, it's going to start causing cancellations,'' Hamilton said.þþNorthwest said there were few cancellations and most flights were on time over the weekend, but wouldn't provide specifics.þþHowever, an official with the striking union disputes that.þþBob Rose, president of Local 5 of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association in Detroit, said in the six-hour period from 6 a.m. to noon EDT Sunday, Northwest had 85 delayed flights at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and 68 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, the carrier's major U.S. hubs. Northwest had 234 delays at those two airports on Saturday, Rose said. He had no data on canceled flights.þþ''Northwest is hurting,'' Rose said. ''They're hurting themselves, and they're hurting the passengers.''þþNo talks are scheduled between Northwest and the union, which is refusing to take pay cuts and layoffs that would have reduced their ranks almost by half.þþThe mechanics averaged about $70,000 a year in pay, and cleaners and custodians can make about $40,000. The company wants to cut their wages by about 25 percent.þþNorthwest also sought to lay off about 2,000 workers, almost halving a work force that is already half the size it was in 2001. The cuts would be concentrated among cleaners and custodians; Northwest has said other airlines use contractors to do that work for less.þþAMFA represents nearly 3,500 mechanics, about 790 cleaners and 75 custodians.þþEagan-based Northwest has said it needs $1.1 billion in labor savings. Only pilots have agreed, accepting a 15 percent pay cut worth $300 million when combined with cuts for salaried employees. It is negotiating with ground workers and flight attendants, and it has said it can reopen talks with pilots once it gets concessions from the other groups.þþAfter talks broke off late Friday, union negotiator Jim Young said the mechanics would rather see the airline go into bankruptcy than agree to Northwest's terms. The Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association represents about 11 percent of Northwest's 40,000 employees.þþIn addition to Detroit and Minneapolis, Northwest has hubs in Memphis, Tenn., Tokyo and Amsterdam, Netherlands.þþ
Source: NY Times
