MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Negotiations between Mesaba Aviation Inc. and its unions were to continue, the company said, despite a bankruptcy court ruling allowing the feeder airline for Northwest to impose pay cuts on its workers.þþ''We need a consensual agreement for the company to survive,'' said Tom Wychor, head of the pilots union. He and other union leaders pledged to strike if the airline followed through on its intention to impose terms at 12:01 a.m. Central Time Wednesday.þþA full-scale strike could force the already bankrupt airline to liquidate.þþJudge Gregory Kishel ruled Monday that Mesaba could throw out its contracts with its 1,140 pilots, mechanics and flight attendants. The unions promised to appeal the ruling.þþHowever, Kishel scheduled a hearing for 1:35 p.m. Tuesday on the airline's request for an injunction against the strike.þþWychor said Monday it would be ''a sad day for labor in America'' if Kishel ruled against the unions again on Tuesday.þþ''To have ... the courts strip you of a contract then shackle you to a job at below-market rates is a total travesty of justice,'' he said.þþHe said that if the airline gets the injunction, it will have trouble keeping its employees. ''I don't think that everyone is going to quit and not have a job tomorrow -- some pilots will because they have other opportunities -- but everyone is going to be trying to get out of this place.''þþMichael Meyer, attorney for Mesaba, told the court Monday, ''We intend to go forward (with imposing terms), but we also intend to negotiate.''þþMesaba flies to nearly 100 cities in America and Canada, funneling passengers to Northwest's hubs in Minneapolis, Detroit and Memphis, Tenn. It's the only air carrier serving some of those cities.þþThe airline has said it wants 17.5 percent in labor savings from its unions.þþIt was the second time Kishel gave Mesaba permission to throw out its union contracts. Much of his first decision was upheld on a union appeal, and Kishel's ruling on Monday dealt with the parts that weren't.þþThe judge ruled the airline had bargained in good faith on snapbacks, or automatic restorations of cuts in the future. He also rejected a union argument that Mesaba parent MAIR Holdings Inc. would get an economic windfall through bankruptcy.þþWithin minutes of Kishel's decision, the unions renewed their vow to strike if the airline imposes terms.þþ''We simply will not accept this injustice,'' Tim Evenson, a spokesman for the flight attendants union, said in a statement.þþMesaba has warned that its financial situation is deteriorating and it can't tap into $24 million in debt financing unless it reaches a deal with its unions. At the same time, the airline's creditors are getting impatient and could push for liquidation in an attempt to recover some of their money.þþMesaba gets all of its planes, passengers and revenue from Northwest Airlines Inc., and when Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection in September 2005, Mesaba followed about a month later.þþNorthwest has been pressuring Mesaba and its other regional feeder, Pinnacle Airlines, to cut costs. The feeder airlines fly under the Northwest Airlink name, funneling passengers into Northwest hubs.þþNorthwest Chief Executive Doug Steenland said last week that the airline has made preparations for getting Mesaba passengers to their destination if the airline's workers strike. On Monday, spokesman Roman Blahoski said Northwest wasn't ready yet to talk about those plans.þþWhatever Northwest's plans are, they won't include their pilots flying for Mesaba. The Northwest pilots said last week they wouldn't perform struck work.þþ
Source: NY Times
