Aug 21, 2006 10:26 pm US/Central
NWA Flight Attendants' Strike Clock Ticks Down
by Bridgette Bornstein
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
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Flight attendants preparing for Aug. 25 strike. (File)
We're just a few days away from what Northwest flight attendants call CHAOS. They're threatening random walkouts to disrupt the airline's service.
U.S. travelers have seen unannounced work stoppages before. But they've never happened here in Minnesota. The deadline is Friday at 9:01 p.m.
Right now Northwest and its flight attendants are hovering in uncharted territory with a labor group threatening a random walkout and doing so while the airline is in bankruptcy.
The threat of sudden walkouts, dubbed CHAOS, is not a common bargaining tactic in labor disputes. It has been used a few times before, like in 1993 when Alaska Airlines flight attendants employed the method. They only targeted seven flights over about a six month period.
So the question now, as we're just four days away from the deadline: could just the threat of CHAOS be enough to put pressure on negotiators?
"I think there will be an agreement. I would put the probability of an agreement as strictly being positive. Northwest does not want another problem here," said Mario Bognanno, Professor Emeritus at the Carlson School of Management.
Even though the deadline is Friday at 9:01 p.m., it doesn't seem to be having much of an impact on travelers' decision making. And travel agents are not seeing leisure or business travelers change airlines or even seem very concerned about the potential disruption.
"We aren't even receiving a lot of questions about it. Over time we've really seen business travelers become flexible and make sure that they have plans in place so that, if something changes at the last minute, they're able to deal with it," said Janet Wheatley of Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
One air travel expert said the probability of having your flight a target of CHAOS is less than your chance of having your flight affected by weather problems.
But there's really no way to know for sure. The airline said it does have a plan, but won't say what it is. It also won't say if it has replacement flight attendants ready, but we have not seen any sort of training or recruiting. As of right now, there are no new talks scheduled.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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