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Minneapolis (AP) ― Two competing unions began a campaign to lure Northwest Airlines Corp. flight attendants away from their current union Wednesday, just as the airline is seeking major concessions from all its workers.

The Association of Flight Attendants, a union with some 45,000 members at 22 airlines, said it will begin sending union authorization cards over the next few days to the 9,600 members of the Professional Flight Attendants Association.

The AFA said it was approached by Northwest flight attendants. An election would be held if just over half of Northwest flight attendants sign the cards.

At the same time, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters is also courting Northwest flight attendants, according to the anti-PFAA Web site PFAAWatch.com.

The moves came shortly before Northwest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Wednesday. The Eagan-based carrier had been trying to slash its labor costs by more than $1.1 billion by negotiating concessions from its several unions.

Northwest's mechanics, cleaners and custodians went on strike Aug. 20 to try to fight off deep layoffs and pay cuts. They're represented by the independent Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which ousted the International Association of Machinists as their union in 1999.

An AFA spokeswoman said her union will point to its experience with collective bargaining with airlines in bankruptcy proceedings. The union represents flight attendants at United Airlines and U.S. Airways, both currently in bankruptcy, and said it had been invited by Northwest flight attendants to conduct an organizing drive.

"That legal expertise and our collective bargaining experience sets us apart from anything else," spokeswoman Corey Caldwell said.

A PFAA spokesman didn't immediately return a call for comment.

Teamsters spokeswoman Leigh Strope said the union was contacted by several Northwest flight attendants.

"There have been some discussions," Strope said. "They said they weren't happy with their current representation." She said she didn't have details on exactly why the attendants were unhappy.

But Caldwell said the Teamsters' effort was clearly a response to the AFA's campaign.

"The Teamsters should take their money and go home and stop wasting it," she said. The Teamsters represented Northwest flight attendants for 26 years before the flight attendants voted the union out in 2003.

Caldwell said the AFA's goal is to have an election before Northwest's flight attendants return to the bargaining table. For that to happen, 50 percent of Northwest's flight attendants, plus one, must sign and return the authorization cards, which must be certified by the National Mediation Board.

Those cards will go in the mail Thursday, and while there's no deadline for returning them, Caldwell said the AFA expected to reach its goal quickly.

The AFA is 60 years old and is part of the 700,000-member Communications Workers of America. The independent Teamsters date back to 1903 and have 1.4 million members.

In a posting Wednesday, the administrators of PFAAWatch.com accused the PFAA leadership of driving flight attendants "to a point of near destruction" because of the pay and job cuts Northwest is seeking.

"The time has come for us to realize that no matter what, the election of the PFAA to represent us was a bad decision and we must now prevent them from making any more disastrous decisions on our behalf. ... The Teamsters can provide us with unsurpassed resources along with the best assistance in aggressive talks with NWA," they wrote.

The 2003 vote to replace the Teamsters with the PFAA was 4,857-to-3,916.

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Northwest Airlines was founded in 1926, when it began carrying air mail from the Twin Cities to Chicago on a pair of rented, open-cockpit biplanes. The company began transporting ticketed passengers almost a year later.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)