Flight Attendants Fight Concessions In Court And On The Picket Line

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/5420

Flight Attendants Fight Concessions In Court And On The Picket Line - 03/07/07

By Doug Cunningham

Northwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the CWA are looking for relief from $192 million a year in concessions forced upon them by the airline and the bankruptcy court. On Thursday the union will be in court arguing for a reduction in the concessions and on the picket lines at airports. The pickets are informational – to let the public know that Northwest took 40 percent of flight attendants’ compensation when the union contracts were thrown out. And now that Northwest is making more money faster than it told the court it expected, the airline doesn’t need to take as much from the workers. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA spokesman Ricky Thornton.

: “A lot of it was based on the fact that we refused to let them outsource our jobs to the south China flight attendants and to India flight attendants. And so every time we said no to them our percentage of the pay cut got bigger."

The flight attendants fight at Northwest is over much more than just money, though. It’s also about collective bargaining rights.

: “They've taken away our right to strike under the National Railway Labor Act. And that's another whole action that we're dealing with simultaneously with trying to reduce the amount of concessions that we have taken."

AUDIO story here: http://www.laborradio.org/files/lo/winsheadlines.ram