NW pilots now threatening strike

[Carolinian]

With DL pilots already making a strike threat, NW pilots are as well. Hopefully this is just posturing for the bankruptcy labor issues, but who knows if either will ultimately pull the trigger on what would be a ''murder/suicide'' (as a DL executive has rightly described it) at either airline.

The NW strike authorization vote is over February 13-28, with the first day the pilots could walk being March 1.

This hits home for me, as I have a flight back from Europe on March 1 with NW. The plane that I take will have left the US on February 28 before the potential strike, so hopefully the pilots would want to get home and fly the plane back on the 1st, but if there is a strike, onward travel from Detroit may be a problem. My wife is leaving Europe 5 days later, so that could be a real probelm with her travel.

The other big problem would be watching nearly half a million ff miles potentially vaporize if a strike drives these airlines under. At the usually accepted value of 2 cents each, that is $10K worth of miles.

 

[#1 Cowboys Fan]

I have a round-trip with NW from 3/7-3/17.

Hope they are still flying.

Pat

 

[Gramma5]

Oh dear....

My husband and I both have NWA FF flights in Mar. and ticketed flights on NWA and DL for April! I can't even begin to think about them striking....(That's a nightmare for me!) It appears if they do, then the pilots will be commiting "suicide" and it will very likely change NWA (if they even survive a strike...)forever. It will also impact the economics of Minneapolis if we lose NWA & DL.

 

[Blue Skies]

We are going to Hawaii March 2-9. I hope they can work everything out so it's a "win-win" for both sides, if that's possible.

 

[EvelynK72]

Darn! Just when I finally make it to NW Silver Elite!

Evelyn

 

[Carolinian]

The one positive angle is that UA pilots used exactly the same brinkmanship during their bankruptcy and everything came out OK. We can only hope that it will for DL and NW as well.

 

[MontrealGirl]

Uh oh...

If they strike on the 1st of March I'll be mid-journey in Japan! Does anyone know how that would work? If they go on strike, will I be picked up by another airline? Not much of an experienced traveller over here...

 

[Poobah]

NWA Strike

I can't worry about this. There is nothing I can do about it, besides I think it is brinksmanship anyway.

The judge seems to be pushing NWA and the two unions to work it out. That does help NWA because as long as the contracts are not settled, NWA continues to reap the benefits of the initial pay cuts.

The third union (IAM) votes to accept their negotiated settlement starting Wednesday. I can't imagine they won't accept it.

NWA is going ahead with a some of the outsourcing, so they think they will be in business.

If the unions decide to strike, I am sure a 90 day cooling off period will be imposed by the courts.

Both our kids work for NWA so we have more than just a passing interest in what is going on.

Cheers.

Paul

 

[Carolinian]

Tentative Agreement reached!

NWA has announced this afternoon that they had reached a tentative agreement with the pilots, which will be submitted for ratification by the union members soon. They reached an agreement with their flight attendants a couple of days ago. This is certainly good news for all who fly the red tail.