Northwest faces crucial decision on buying employee shares EAGAN, Minn. (AP) =97 The past has come back to haunt Northwest Airlines,=20 which owes its employees $226 million for pay concessions they made 10=20 years ago while the carrier seeks a new round of nearly $1 billion in=20 annual concessions. Northwest employees were given shares of preferred stock in 1993 when they= =20 agreed to take pay cuts. Pilots converted their shares to common stock, but= =20 the flight attendants' and ground workers' unions kept the preferred stock,= =20 which would give them a dollar-for-dollar return on their concessions. Now,= =20 the Eagan, Minn.-based airline is facing a deadline to repurchase the=20 preferred stock at $46.96 a share while company executives are doing=20 everything in their power to preserve cash. Northwest has lost $1.6 billion= =20 since early 2001 due to the economic downturn, lagging business travel, the= =20 Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and competition from low-fare carriers. A major= =20 rebound in airline industry revenues isn't expected any time soon. Trustee= =20 Mollie Reiley of Teamsters Local 2000, which represents flight attendants,= =20 said Northwest should "just cash it out and be done with it." Northwest's unions have not decided whether they will formally negotiate=20 with management on new labor concessions, but Reiley said management can't= =20 expect employees' trust unless they make good on their commitment to buy=20 the shares. "It's difficult, if you haven't finished one endeavor, to ask=20 people to pony up on a second one," Reiley said. David Barrow-West,=20 Teamsters assistant trustee, said each participating flight attendant holds= =20 stock worth $7,000 to $18,000 for the concessions they accepted from August= =20 1993 through July 1996. "Flight attendants aren't as rich as other=20 employees. The money at risk here is important to them," Barrow-West=20 said. Northwest outlined the company's options for repurchasing the stock= =20 in a letter mailed to employees last week. The company can pay for the=20 preferred stock with cash, Northwest common stock, which closed Friday at=20 $8.93 a share, or a combination of cash and common stock. Northwest's board of directors discussed the stock issue Friday, but the=20 company did not reveal what was decided. The company must decide by Monday which payment option to use, Michael=20 Becker, Northwest's senior vice president of human resources, said in the=20 letter to employees. Spokesman Bill Mellon said Northwest will notify=20 employees of the decision early this month. The preferred stock has a "put= =20 right," which means an employee can "put" the stock up for sale between=20 June 2 and Aug. 1. The Northwest 17-member board =97 which includes three=20 union members =97 will meet on or about Aug. 1 to decide whether to actually= =20 buy the stock. "No decision has been made as to whether Northwest will be=20 financially and legally able to repurchase the preferred stock this=20 summer," Mellon said. Barrow-West said Teamsters attorneys have been=20 reviewing the complicated stock agreement. "We recognize that Northwest has= =20 certain liquidity problems right now," he said. However, he added, "If the= =20 company wants us to take them seriously, they have to pay off their old=20 debt" to employees. Northwest is Michigan's biggest passenger carrier and=20 has a hub at Detroit Metropolitan Airport. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************