Northwest, union tangle over new furloughs Dateline: Thursday June 19, 2003 Northwest Airlines has sparked a conflict with the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Assn., representing the carrier's technicians, over its plans to eliminate 150 additional mechanic positions. Management is claiming that SARS-related drops in transpacific traffic justify invoking the force majeure clause of the AMFA agreement, which permits the layoffs. In a taped message to employees, NWA pointed out that the airline is temporarily grounding 16 of its 18 747-200s owing to "SARS-related reductions in travel," resulting in a corresponding decrease in maintenance demand. The union disagrees, arguing that the current situation does not justify force majeure. "To our knowledge, Northwest was the only major airline to invoke the force majeure clause for the Iraq conflict, and now Northwest is the only major to attempt to invoke it again on the basis of SARS. This has little to do with SARS and a lot to do with Northwest's desire to cut costs by circumventing its contract obligations," AMFA Contract Coordinator for Northwest Jeff Mathews said in a statement. "We consider this a clear violation of our contract terms and are considering the appropriate action to take." An airline spokesperson told ATWOnline that in March NWA announced plans to furlough 2,000 employees but has laid off only 1,685. Even including the additional 150 positions, the company is still 165 below the 2,000 figure, he pointed out. To mitigate the impact of the 747-200 groundings, which actually reduce MRO demand by a total of 750 positions, NWA is establishing three new maintenance check lines in Minneapolis/St. Paul, two for A320s and one for 757s, which will require 550 technicians. Thus, the net job reductions total 150.--Loren Farrar *************************************************** 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.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************