NWA strikes would differ
Attendants learn from mechanics
August 20, 2006
Email this Print this BY JEWEL GOPWANI
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Hernandez, of Woodhaven, left, doing more work on the Challenger. The mechanics strike at Northwest was the catalyst for him starting his own body shop. He says he breaks even restoring classic cars. The job also allows him more time for family activities, he says. (RICHARD LEE/Detroit Free Press)
Flight attendants are gearing up for a strike at Northwest Airlines a year after their coworkers who fixed and cleaned the airline's planes launched their own strike against the company.
The two unions are fighting over many of the same issues including wage and benefit cuts.
But with an unpredictable strike plan and a connected new union, labor experts say the Association of Flight Attendants faces different circumstances than members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. Still there are lessons to be learned from the mechanics, whose walkout failed to halt the airline.
The mechanics strike qualifies as a textbook case of a failed strike, said Gary Chaison, professor of management at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
Last August, Northwest scuttled the mechanics walkout by hiring temporary and, later, permanent replacement workers and outsourcing the work of 4,300 mechanics and cleaners.
The mechanics walked off the job protesting 26% wage cuts and plans to outsource the work of more than 2,000 mechanics and cleaners.
Initially, the strike caused delays for more than half of Northwest's flights. But airline operations improved quickly.
The union, "just had everything going wrong. You could tell that they had no public support. They had no support from the labor movement," Chaison said. "They had an employer that had planned for the strike very well."
In the end, the union says 300 mechanics crossed the picket line, including as many as 80 at Detroit Metro. Another 300 laid-off mechanics returned to Northwest, including 75 in Detroit and the company hired 280 replacement workers.
Looking back, striker Larry Hernandez says the walkout was unnecessary.
"I think that we probably could have worked it out. I think that both parties are really foolish," said Hernandez, who lives in Woodhaven. Before the strike, Hernandez fixed jet ways, vehicles and pulleys at Northwest.
The strike was the push 45-year-old Hernandez needed to start his own body shop, M & K Custom Paint and Body in Dearborn Heights, where he's breaking even restoring classic cars.Hernandez said he is happier now.
"I'm in control of my destiny right now. I have the freedom of leaving here and going to my kids' soccer game and not working Christmas," he said.
Dennis Sutton, president of the mechanics union local in Romulus, was picketing with flight attendants Friday, warning them that "they have to prepare for the worst," especially in their finances.
Sutton said the strike has been tougher on cleaners like Ray Garrison.
The 49-year-old Wyandotte man emptied waste from planes at Northwest, where he worked for 21 years.
"I lost my pay. I lost my insurance. I'm a diabetic and I can't get insurance," said Garrison, who is still trying to find a long-term job.
Garrison has found a seasonal job delivering trees and plants for John Deere Landscaping in Taylor.
"It's half of what I made an hour. And it helps to relieve some of the pressure. At least I can pay the bills to keep the house going," he said.
Northwest has eliminated Garrison's job, so he had no job to return to.
One reason for the strike, union leaders say, is that they didn't want to ask workers like Garrison to vote themselves out of a job.
"The union didn't have a choice in this," Garrison said.
From the mechanics strike, flight attendants learned that Northwest will fight to keep flying through a strike.
The airline says "it has a range of contingency options to respond to any AFA work disruption and it will take all necessary actions to continue to operate its normal flight schedule."
The attendants union says that its strike strategy, to target certain flights in certain cities with surprise walkouts, should make it tough for the airline to replace workers.
That strategy alone reflects a realistic view of striking a company, post AMFA.
"They recognize that the airline can operate without them," said John Remington, professor of human resources and industrial relations at the University of Minnesota.
In July, the flight attendants switched unions, from an independent group to one affiliated with the AFL-CIO. The change, experts say, gives them more clout as they move closer to a strike.
Attendants will have to work to get public support from travelers who worry about a strike delaying or canceling their flights.
"They have to make it more than just themselves," Chaison said.
"Essentially what they're saying is 'We're going to inconvenience you tremendously, but for a good cause.' "
Contact JEWEL GOPWANI at 313-223-4550 or j gopwani@freepress.com.
