Aug 11, 2006 7:04 am US/Central
NWA Flight Attendants Reconsider Strike Options
Minneapolis (AP) ―
The foiled terrorist plot that has resulted in heightened airline security has Northwest Airlines flight attendants questioning whether they should go ahead with plans to begin selective work stoppages next week.
With increased security already causing delays at airports across the country, the interim president of the Association of Flight Attendants at Northwest said Thursday that union leaders were weighing their options.
"Today, there is a security issue in this country, and we're going to stay focused on that," Mollie Reiley said after spending more than two hours in a security line with AFA attorney David Borer at New York's LaGuardia Airport.
Reiley said the London terrorism plot and enhanced security at airports around the world have increased the stress on Northwest flight attendants.
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper is considering a motion by Northwest management to block any job actions by flight attendant union members. The union had said sporadic strikes could begin Tuesday.
The union is angry because Northwest recently imposed new wage and work rules on the flight attendants.
Gropper's decision will set a precedent on whether an airline union can go on strike against a carrier operating in bankruptcy.
Neither Reiley nor Borer would speculate on the possibility that the union might want to extend their Tuesday deadline in light of the new terror threat. If there were an extension, it would open the possibility of new bargaining talks between Northwest and the union.
Northwest flight attendants have been talking about engaging in sporadic strikes for the past few weeks, dubbing the program CHAOS, an acronym for Create Havoc Around Our System.
The idea would be to conduct strikes on a few flights to increase the union's leverage to get a better deal from Northwest.
But labor relations consultant Jerry Glass, a former US Airways executive, said flight attendants might want to delay the strategy because the airline industry is in a "time of crisis."
CHAOS "will just exacerbate a bad situation with respect to delays and passengers' being on edge and worried about catching flights," Glass said.
(© 2006 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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