jetbluedog
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It's time to walk the lines my commarderies!!
WOOHOO!!
Mesaba Airlines labor dispute nears deadline
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune
Published January 8, 2004 MESA08
It's showdown time at Mesaba Airlines.
After 2 1/2 years of unproductive talks, management and union negotiators must broker a deal in two days or the pilots could walk off their jobs.
Northwest Airlines pays Mesaba to fly to 30 states and Canada. If there is a strike, six Minnesota cities would lose all air service and most of Mesaba's 1,700 Minnesota employees would be on strike or furloughed.
For travelers, the disruption would be far less extensive than in 1998, when striking Northwest pilots shut down both airlines. Still, about one in every 12 Northwest passengers flies part of a trip on Mesaba.
For employees, the dispute goes well beyond the borders of Minnesota and the Eagan corporate offices of Northwest and Mesaba.
Leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) are worried that Northwest and other large airlines might pit one regional carrier against another in a bidding war for the cheapest labor.
Mesaba pilots rally.Glen StubbeStar Tribune"We don't want a strike. Nobody wants to walk around with picket signs in 2 degrees below zero," said Duane Woerth, president of ALPA International.
However, Woerth added that Mesaba pilots will not accept an inferior contract simply because Mesaba executives are responding to cost-control pressures from Northwest management. Indeed, Northwest pilots are negotiating with the big airline, which seeks to lower annual labor costs by $950 million companywide.
"We're just not going to participate in this race to the bottom," Woerth said in an interview. He was in the Twin Cities this week to support Mesaba pilots at a rally. But as international president, he also has provided money and financial and legal experts to help the Mesaba negotiators.
Woerth, who served on the Northwest board of directors in the 1990s, said he is prepared to talk with Northwest executives and do whatever is needed to get a deal that is fair to Mesaba pilots.
Negotiators for the pilots union and Mesaba management opened talks in June 2001, just three months before the airline industry was rocked by the 2001 terrorist attacks. Northwest has lost $1.3 billion since early 2001, and has not restored all the flights cut after the attacks. Northwest also has cut about one-fourth of its workforce.
"We've had to realign our expectations ever since 9/11," Mesaba spokesman Dave Jackson said. "I just don't think that the company and ALPA have reached any agreement on what those expectations mean in terms of a contract." However, he said late Wednesday that negotiations are continuing. "We're still hopeful we can reach an agreement by Friday night."
Mesaba is paying 15 to 20 percent less for its pilot labor than other regional carriers, said Tom Wychor, chairman of Mesaba's ALPA unit. "The first-officer salary is pathetic," Wychor said. Mesaba pilots earn between $17,000 and $85,000, but about 65 percent fall into the $30,000 to $57,000 pay range, according to union figures.
Wychor said the pilots won't ratify a contract unless it contains reasonable improvements in compensation, retirement, work rules and job security.
"This calling that we love is under attack," Wychor said to cheering pilots at a rally on Monday night. "It is up to us to defend it for our family, for our future, for our contract."
Battle plan
Union pilots will be closely monitoring the Northwest and Pinnacle flights that are flown during a strike, because the Northwest and Pinnacle pilots will refuse to fly larger planes or extra flights that are designed to replace Mesaba flights. Memphis-based Pinnacle is a separate regional carrier that also feeds traffic to Northwest.
Invoking battlefield rhetoric to describe their strike preparations, Wychor said: "The Northwest pilots have our left flank covered. The Pinnacle pilots are covering our right. Capt. Woerth has built strong supply lines."
Mark McClain, chairman of the Northwest ALPA unit, said the Mesaba labor battle "feels the same" as the Northwest pilots' labor struggle in 1998. "Anytime that you have differing expectations at the bargaining table, you open yourselves up to job actions," McClain said. Referring to the Mesaba pilots resolve to strike, he said, "I don't think people are strutting their feathers; I think they are going to do what it takes to get a fair contract."
John Spanjers, Mesaba's president, joined the contract talks on Tuesday. So did ALPA's Wychor. They are attempting to find common ground along with the negotiators who have been at the table since 2001.
If the two parties, don't reach an accord by Friday night, President Bush could appoint a Presidential Emergency Board to intervene. Tom Steward, a spokesman for Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said, "The senator has no intentions now or in the foreseeable future of asking the president to intervene." Tonya Tennessen, press secretary for Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said Dayton "thinks the collective bargaining process should be allowed to work."
Many industry insiders will not be surprised if the pilots strike, but people on both sides of the talks repeatedly expressed a desire to avoid a shutdown.
"There is never a good time to have a strike," said Joel Denney, an industry analyst for Piper Jaffray Companies in Minneapolis. "From a financial perspective, given how much the airlines have been hurt over the past two years, it's an incredibly difficult time to have one."
But Denney said Northwest would blunt some of the financial effects of a Mesaba strike by rebooking Mesaba passengers on airplanes flown by Northwest pilots. Denney said that will occur in his hometown of Duluth, which is served by both airlines.
The looming showdown leaves Mesaba passengers like Troy Kleffman keeping close tabs on the Mesaba talks through the news media. Kleffman, a 36-year-old meteorologist from Aberdeen, S.D., and three friends plan to fly on a Mesaba plane Sunday to Northwest's hub in the Twin Cities and then on to Las Vegas.
"It's just a vacation to relax and visit some of the new casinos and probably go to a show or two," Kleffman said.
If the pilots strike, he said, he and his friends will drive three hours to Bismarck, N.D., and catch a plane from there to the Twin Cities.
"We are not going to cancel [the trip] because of the potential strike."
WOOHOO!!
Mesaba Airlines labor dispute nears deadline
Liz Fedor, Star Tribune
Published January 8, 2004 MESA08
It's showdown time at Mesaba Airlines.
After 2 1/2 years of unproductive talks, management and union negotiators must broker a deal in two days or the pilots could walk off their jobs.
Northwest Airlines pays Mesaba to fly to 30 states and Canada. If there is a strike, six Minnesota cities would lose all air service and most of Mesaba's 1,700 Minnesota employees would be on strike or furloughed.
For travelers, the disruption would be far less extensive than in 1998, when striking Northwest pilots shut down both airlines. Still, about one in every 12 Northwest passengers flies part of a trip on Mesaba.
For employees, the dispute goes well beyond the borders of Minnesota and the Eagan corporate offices of Northwest and Mesaba.
Leaders of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) are worried that Northwest and other large airlines might pit one regional carrier against another in a bidding war for the cheapest labor.
Mesaba pilots rally.Glen StubbeStar Tribune"We don't want a strike. Nobody wants to walk around with picket signs in 2 degrees below zero," said Duane Woerth, president of ALPA International.
However, Woerth added that Mesaba pilots will not accept an inferior contract simply because Mesaba executives are responding to cost-control pressures from Northwest management. Indeed, Northwest pilots are negotiating with the big airline, which seeks to lower annual labor costs by $950 million companywide.
"We're just not going to participate in this race to the bottom," Woerth said in an interview. He was in the Twin Cities this week to support Mesaba pilots at a rally. But as international president, he also has provided money and financial and legal experts to help the Mesaba negotiators.
Woerth, who served on the Northwest board of directors in the 1990s, said he is prepared to talk with Northwest executives and do whatever is needed to get a deal that is fair to Mesaba pilots.
Negotiators for the pilots union and Mesaba management opened talks in June 2001, just three months before the airline industry was rocked by the 2001 terrorist attacks. Northwest has lost $1.3 billion since early 2001, and has not restored all the flights cut after the attacks. Northwest also has cut about one-fourth of its workforce.
"We've had to realign our expectations ever since 9/11," Mesaba spokesman Dave Jackson said. "I just don't think that the company and ALPA have reached any agreement on what those expectations mean in terms of a contract." However, he said late Wednesday that negotiations are continuing. "We're still hopeful we can reach an agreement by Friday night."
Mesaba is paying 15 to 20 percent less for its pilot labor than other regional carriers, said Tom Wychor, chairman of Mesaba's ALPA unit. "The first-officer salary is pathetic," Wychor said. Mesaba pilots earn between $17,000 and $85,000, but about 65 percent fall into the $30,000 to $57,000 pay range, according to union figures.
Wychor said the pilots won't ratify a contract unless it contains reasonable improvements in compensation, retirement, work rules and job security.
"This calling that we love is under attack," Wychor said to cheering pilots at a rally on Monday night. "It is up to us to defend it for our family, for our future, for our contract."
Battle plan
Union pilots will be closely monitoring the Northwest and Pinnacle flights that are flown during a strike, because the Northwest and Pinnacle pilots will refuse to fly larger planes or extra flights that are designed to replace Mesaba flights. Memphis-based Pinnacle is a separate regional carrier that also feeds traffic to Northwest.
Invoking battlefield rhetoric to describe their strike preparations, Wychor said: "The Northwest pilots have our left flank covered. The Pinnacle pilots are covering our right. Capt. Woerth has built strong supply lines."
Mark McClain, chairman of the Northwest ALPA unit, said the Mesaba labor battle "feels the same" as the Northwest pilots' labor struggle in 1998. "Anytime that you have differing expectations at the bargaining table, you open yourselves up to job actions," McClain said. Referring to the Mesaba pilots resolve to strike, he said, "I don't think people are strutting their feathers; I think they are going to do what it takes to get a fair contract."
John Spanjers, Mesaba's president, joined the contract talks on Tuesday. So did ALPA's Wychor. They are attempting to find common ground along with the negotiators who have been at the table since 2001.
If the two parties, don't reach an accord by Friday night, President Bush could appoint a Presidential Emergency Board to intervene. Tom Steward, a spokesman for Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said, "The senator has no intentions now or in the foreseeable future of asking the president to intervene." Tonya Tennessen, press secretary for Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn., said Dayton "thinks the collective bargaining process should be allowed to work."
Many industry insiders will not be surprised if the pilots strike, but people on both sides of the talks repeatedly expressed a desire to avoid a shutdown.
"There is never a good time to have a strike," said Joel Denney, an industry analyst for Piper Jaffray Companies in Minneapolis. "From a financial perspective, given how much the airlines have been hurt over the past two years, it's an incredibly difficult time to have one."
But Denney said Northwest would blunt some of the financial effects of a Mesaba strike by rebooking Mesaba passengers on airplanes flown by Northwest pilots. Denney said that will occur in his hometown of Duluth, which is served by both airlines.
The looming showdown leaves Mesaba passengers like Troy Kleffman keeping close tabs on the Mesaba talks through the news media. Kleffman, a 36-year-old meteorologist from Aberdeen, S.D., and three friends plan to fly on a Mesaba plane Sunday to Northwest's hub in the Twin Cities and then on to Las Vegas.
"It's just a vacation to relax and visit some of the new casinos and probably go to a show or two," Kleffman said.
If the pilots strike, he said, he and his friends will drive three hours to Bismarck, N.D., and catch a plane from there to the Twin Cities.
"We are not going to cancel [the trip] because of the potential strike."
