Oberstar wants to run out the clock on merger (NWA-Delta deal)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: StarTribune.com

The influential Minnesota congressman doesn't like the NWA-Delta deal. Though there's little Congress can do to stop it, that doesn't mean he won't try.

By KEVIN DIAZ,

WASHINGTON - The man who will be leading the charge in Congress against the world's biggest airline merger is a flinty miner's son from Minnesota's Iron Range.

Jim Oberstar, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, brings four decades in Washington and a lifetime of hard-knuckled labor politics to his post. And in the proposed Delta-Northwest Airlines merger, which could cost jobs and competition in Minnesota, he doesn't like what he sees.

The 73-year-old native of Chisholm acknowledges that there's little Congress can legally do to block the deal.

But he has a track record of making things painful for the airline industry when it falls short of his standards of safety and fairness.


Read more: http://www.startribune.com/politics/national/17943559.html

[Infinite Hope]

1. I love my congressman (Oberstar) !!! n/t

[BlueCollar]

2. Too bad he refused to co-sponsor

legislation that would have required foreign aircraft repair stations to meet the same standards as those here in the US. (HR 135)

Too cozy with AirBus.