Nov 28, 2006 4:38 pm US/Central
NWA: 'Good Business' Means Peace With Attendants
Minneapolis (AP) ―
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The bankruptcy judge had permitted the airline to slice pay for its flight attendants, who have twice voted down tentative agreements. (File)
CBS
A lawyer for Northwest Airlines said Tuesday that the financially beleaguered airline wants labor peace with its flight attendants even as he urged a federal appeals court to support a judge's decision to block the workers from striking.
The lawyer, Brian Leitch, told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Northwest would continue to negotiate with representatives of about 7,300 active flight attendants who were prevented from striking on Aug. 25 after the company imposed pay cuts.
"Northwest recognizes we still have to achieve an agreement with our flight attendants," Leitch told the three-judge panel. "It's just good business."
The judges will decide whether a district court judge in Manhattan properly overruled a bankruptcy court judge when he stopped the flight attendants from engaging in unannounced, sporadic walkouts.
The bankruptcy judge had permitted the airline to slice pay for its flight attendants, who have twice voted down tentative agreements. The union has said the pay cuts amount to 40 percent when combined with health insurance increases.
The three-judge panel, which didn't immediately rule, questioned both sides at length, as it acknowledged that it had never considered a case quite like it.
Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs cautioned the lawyers to keep in mind that there was more to the dispute than flight attendants and an airline company that carries 130,000 passengers a day on 1,200 flights.
"There's a third party -- the public interest," Jacobs said.
He noted that Congress has purposely structured labor laws regarding the transportation industry to ensure "the ability to travel from here to there."
Another judge, John M. Walker Jr., interrupted Edward J. Gilmartin, a lawyer for the flight attendants, shortly after he said Northwest tried to win concessions through the courts that it was unable to get at the bargaining table.
"That's one way to look at it," Walker said. "Another way is to say that this is a company in financial distress looking to get reorganized."
Judge Reene Raggi said Northwest did what the law permitted it to do by seeking permission from the bankruptcy judge to impose pay cuts.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Heidi A. Wendel, speaking on behalf of the government, disagreed with a claim by lawyers for the employees that a strike should be permitted because it might speed resolution of the contract dispute.
"That strike would come at the expense of the public," she said.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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