Since this is the "general" area, I thought this would be a good place to post this.
Beware of flying NWA during the strike. There is a strike going on with the aircraft mechanics vs. the company. Reasons follow:
1. We apologize to our passengers for the disruption to their travel plans. We had truly hoped that our passengers would not get caught up in our dispute with NWA.
2. We are on strike because Northwest was unwilling to negotiate in good faith.
? From the beginning NWA's strategy has been to disregard the entire negotiating process and enter bankruptcy in order to get more concessions. Their goal is to eliminate most of our jobs and break our union while turning the work over to lower-paid, less-experienced employees at outsourced repair shops. They want to roll back fair wages and benefits that were bargained for over years of good faith negotiations. From the start NWA was not negotiating, they were demanding that we accept their extreme, unalterable position.
3. We are willing to help NWA through the trying times that the industry is experiencing.
? We offered a substantial 16% pay cut and agreed to pay 20% of our medical premiums. This is a larger concession than any other NWA work group is currently working under or has offered. NWA?s response to us was ?not nearly enough ? try again?. We believe we made a very generous counter proposal to NWA.
? In order for AMFA to accept NWA's unreasonable offer, 53% of our members would have had to vote in favor of eliminating their own jobs. That is a practical impossibility. This is why we believe NWA doesn't really want an agreement ? they want to break the union and use the mechanics and cleaners as an example to the other unions that if they don't capitulate to NWA?s demands they too will be dealt with in a similar manner.
Note: The fact that NWA has been making strike contingency plans for the past 18 months is confirmation for our belief that NWA never intended to reach an agreement. There plan was to break our union.
? NWA has already received $450 million of permanent cost reductions from the 5000 mechanic and cleaner jobs NWA has already eliminated. No other group employed by NWA has experienced such drastic job loss. It is totally inaccurate and unfair for anyone to claim that AMFA has not "kicked in" yet to help out the company.
4. We have a history of helping NWA when they asked for relief.
? In 1983 and again in 1993 we agreed to reduce our pay and vacation which saved NWA 100?s of millions of dollars. In exchange for our sacrifice NWA was willing to provide job security for the future. In spite of this commitment made in exchange for our sacrifices, today NWA wants to complete their elimination of 7500 of our jobs and reduce the pay and benefits for those who remain to levels the industry pays to far less experienced mechanics.
? NWA still owes its workers a quarter of a billion dollars from the last time we agreed to pay cuts and is fighting a court decision that they need to pay us this money. In spite of this we were still willing to offer our financial help once again, in the form of taking a 16% pay cut and other concessions.
5. We are willing to complete a deal with NWA but there must be a future for us or we intend to stay out on strike until NWA realizes that we are willing to sacrifice all of our jobs today rather then continue to allow thousands of the members of our working family to be sacrificed for the incompetence and greed of NWA?s executive management team.
Beware of flying NWA during the strike. There is a strike going on with the aircraft mechanics vs. the company. Reasons follow:
1. We apologize to our passengers for the disruption to their travel plans. We had truly hoped that our passengers would not get caught up in our dispute with NWA.
2. We are on strike because Northwest was unwilling to negotiate in good faith.
? From the beginning NWA's strategy has been to disregard the entire negotiating process and enter bankruptcy in order to get more concessions. Their goal is to eliminate most of our jobs and break our union while turning the work over to lower-paid, less-experienced employees at outsourced repair shops. They want to roll back fair wages and benefits that were bargained for over years of good faith negotiations. From the start NWA was not negotiating, they were demanding that we accept their extreme, unalterable position.
3. We are willing to help NWA through the trying times that the industry is experiencing.
? We offered a substantial 16% pay cut and agreed to pay 20% of our medical premiums. This is a larger concession than any other NWA work group is currently working under or has offered. NWA?s response to us was ?not nearly enough ? try again?. We believe we made a very generous counter proposal to NWA.
? In order for AMFA to accept NWA's unreasonable offer, 53% of our members would have had to vote in favor of eliminating their own jobs. That is a practical impossibility. This is why we believe NWA doesn't really want an agreement ? they want to break the union and use the mechanics and cleaners as an example to the other unions that if they don't capitulate to NWA?s demands they too will be dealt with in a similar manner.
Note: The fact that NWA has been making strike contingency plans for the past 18 months is confirmation for our belief that NWA never intended to reach an agreement. There plan was to break our union.
? NWA has already received $450 million of permanent cost reductions from the 5000 mechanic and cleaner jobs NWA has already eliminated. No other group employed by NWA has experienced such drastic job loss. It is totally inaccurate and unfair for anyone to claim that AMFA has not "kicked in" yet to help out the company.
4. We have a history of helping NWA when they asked for relief.
? In 1983 and again in 1993 we agreed to reduce our pay and vacation which saved NWA 100?s of millions of dollars. In exchange for our sacrifice NWA was willing to provide job security for the future. In spite of this commitment made in exchange for our sacrifices, today NWA wants to complete their elimination of 7500 of our jobs and reduce the pay and benefits for those who remain to levels the industry pays to far less experienced mechanics.
? NWA still owes its workers a quarter of a billion dollars from the last time we agreed to pay cuts and is fighting a court decision that they need to pay us this money. In spite of this we were still willing to offer our financial help once again, in the form of taking a 16% pay cut and other concessions.
5. We are willing to complete a deal with NWA but there must be a future for us or we intend to stay out on strike until NWA realizes that we are willing to sacrifice all of our jobs today rather then continue to allow thousands of the members of our working family to be sacrificed for the incompetence and greed of NWA?s executive management team.
