DETROIT, Aug. 24 - Beyond the highly visible labor confrontation taking place between Northwest Airlines and its striking mechanics' union is another shadow battle that has nothing to do with wages or benefits.þþAs the strike presses on with no resolution in sight, it has become increasingly clear that the critical fight to be won for either Northwest or its mechanics is the battle for consumer trust. For the airline, that means convincing travelers that flying Northwest will not result in being stranded in an airport for hours while mechanics - who the union says are rookies - repair planes that may be unsafe.þþIndustry analysts say that by convincing passengers that safety priorities and on-time performance have not changed, the airline can weather the strike. þþSo far, several analysts said, Northwest appears to have the upper hand because there have not been any major disruptions. But the strike is still in the early stages, and the public relations dynamics could shift fairly quickly if delays and cancellations greatly increase. þþDetermining whether traveling with Northwest is going smoothly has been difficult because the airline has not released much specific data to support its optimistic claims. And whenever it has said operations are normal, the mechanics' union has immediately issued a rebuttal.þþAt first, the company did not provide any data on cancellations. When it did post numbers on Tuesday, it said it had canceled only 3 percent, or about 46, of its 1,473 flights for Monday. By contrast, the mechanics union said the airline had canceled 33 flights out of Detroit alone on Monday. By late Wednesday, cancellations continued to decline, with the airline recording completion of all but about 2 percent of its flights. þþIndependently compiled statistics from FlightStats, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore., show similar cancellation rates through Monday. FlightStats, which bases its statistics on data from the Federal Aviation Administration and other sources, also reported that during the first three days of the strike, 47 percent of Northwest's flights departed or arrived at least 15 minutes late. The data showed that 31 percent of Northwest's flights were delayed last week, before the strike began.þþRod Caborn, executive vice president for YPB&R, a travel marketing firm based in Orlando, Fla., said Northwest had created a perception that it had won. ÿPerception is reality,ÿ he said. þþThe union counters that it may just be a matter of time. þþÿOur morale is very high,ÿ O. V. Delle-Femine, the union's executive director, said in a telephone interview. ÿThe reports I get every day are that Northwest's cancellations are increasing. They've spent three months training people to service five different types of planes. They don't know what they're supposed to do. It's going to be a disaster. The flying public is going to pay the price for flying Northwest.ÿþþBy Wednesday night, as the strike ended its fifth day, the two sides had not yet gone back to the bargaining table, nor had they announced plans to do so. þþSo far, for passengers, flights seem to be operating as normal, according to Northwest passengers interviewed Wednesday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus. þþÿQuite honestly, I haven't really noticed a lapse of any kind since the strike began,ÿ said Jerry Blackwell, 43, a lawyer from Minneapolis, who said he flew Northwest two to three times a week. ÿIt seems as though there have been few disruptions.ÿ þþNorthwest's plan to win the confidence of air travelers began well before the picket lines went up. Months before 4,430 mechanics, cleaners and other members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off the job on Saturday, Northwest's corporate communications department began planning a public relations component to the airline's strike contingency plan.þþNorthwest anticipated that the union would question the credentials of the 1,200 replacement mechanics to try to convince the public that flying Northwest during the strike would not be safe. So part of the public relations strategy, devised by Northwest's senior vice president for corporate and brand communications, Mary Carroll Linder, was to emphasize the qualifications of the replacement mechanics.þþMs. Linder oversaw an effort to post strike-related questions and answers for consumers on Northwest's Web site. The site states that 65 percent of the replacement mechanics have at least 10 years of experience. Ms. Linder declined to be interviewed for this article, and a Northwest spokesman said the company would not comment on its public relations strategy.þþOnce the strike began, managing the message proved difficult. This became evident on Saturday afternoon when Northwest found that every delay, cancellation and mechanical problems suddenly became the subject of public scrutiny.þþAt the airport in Romulus that afternoon, a Northwest plane blew out four tires as it landed. Northwest scrambled to issue a statement explaining the company did not believe that the incident was related to the strike. Then a television station reported that another Northwest plane had to make an emergency landing after reporting smoke in the cabin. þþOn Wednesday, the airline said a flight from Minneapolis to Bozeman, Mont., developed hyrdraulic issues and had to be diverted to Billings, where it landed without incident. An airline spokesman, Todd Morgano, said it was too early to draw any conclusions about the cause.þþNorthwest also scrambled to respond to reports of higher-than-average delays and cancellations. The mechanics' union on Saturday began circulating a document with data on delays. Executives were unable at first to determine where the union got its numbers. After finding out the data was from the airline's internal employee Web site, executives rushed to explain that the delays seemed high because they included ones from two Northwest partners.þþJeremy W. Peters reported from Detroit for this article and Christopher Elliott from Orlando, Fla. Steven Greenhouse, in New York, and Micheline Maynard, in Detroit, contributed reporting.þþ
Source: NY Times
