MPR: Most Northwest workers understand the need for layoffs

Most Northwest workers understand the need for layoffs
By Andrew Haeg
Minnesota Public Radio
September 21, 2001

The Layoffs | The Workers | The Bailout | The State

Northwest Airlines said Friday it's laying off about 10,000 workers, as it struggles to cope with the aftermath of the terror attacks in New York and Washington. Northwest's cutbacks amount to almost 19 percent of the company's workforce. The airline's employees are trying to cope with the dramatic turn of events.

Northwest Airlines baggage handler Phil Volby is waiting to learn whether he will lose his job as a result of the layoffs announced Friday by the airline.
(MPR Photo/Andrew Haeg)

Like all Northwest employees, baggage handler Phil Volby is still waiting to find out if he's lost his job. By his arithmetic, he probably won't - in his section there are 80 people below him in seniority.

"It's going to be confusing for a while, and probably just the really junior people will be affected," Volby says.

In other words - last in, first out. And given the mobile nature of many Northwest employees' jobs, they say if you're bumped in one city, you can travel to another and bump someone more junior there. It get even more complicated. Seniority only applies in each subset of the workforce - Volby has 16 months as a baggage handler, and 14 months as a reservationist, so he if loses his baggage job, he might be able to bump someone at the reservation desk.

Such considerations may explain why Northwest hasn't yet detailed exactly where the job cuts will fall. Volby understands Northwest's position, and hopes the tough times will pass.

"I'm optimistic that it's going to be more of a short-term thing rather than a forever type thing. Just the shock of what happened on the 11th of September is making people a little leery of flying right now. We need to fly in this country. People are not going to be satisfied driving coast to coast," Volby says.

Northwest CEO Richard Anderson says he doesn't know how many union workers accepted the five and six-month voluntary leaves the carrier offered earlier this week. That may explain why Northwest hasn't told employees if they'd lost their jobs. The resulting uncertainty has left many employess grasping for whatever information they could find.

O.V. Delle Femine is executive director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which represents roughly 10,000 Northwest mechanics and cleaners. About 1,000 of those mermbers will lose their jobs. AMFA has decided to file a grievance against Northwest for allegedly breaching a no-layoff clause in the union's agreement. Delle Femine says he realizes Northwest is in trouble, but he wants the airline to honor the contract.

Arthur Smith is a skycap supervisor with Northwest. He says the current economic crisis facing the industry is the worst he's seen in his 40 years at the airline.
(MPR Photo/Andrew Haeg)

"We understand the carrier's position and the expeditiousness to get the airline moving again. But they should have followed our agreement. We have a written, bona fide agreement, and they ignored it," says Delle Femine.

The company also plans to cut some 2,800 flight attendants, or about 25 percent of the total. Anne Meyer, vice president of Teamsters Local 2000, which represents some 12,000 flight attendants, says so far 1,900 union members had chosen to take a five-month leave of absence. She says that means only 900 flight attendants were slated to be laid off.

"We were expecting it to be a lot worse, so I guess on that level we have reason to be somewhat thankful," says Meyer.

The Teamsters also considered filing grievances, but Meyer says, the union's attorneys told them they would lose in court. The carrier's biggest union group is also expressing understanding. The International Association of Machinists represents about 19,000 ground workers, excluding mechanics. John Massetti is the union's secretary-treasurer.

"We are hoping. If everything goes well and the economy starts bouncing back again, and the flying public gets back on the aircrafts. Northwest and all the other carriers will crank up again, that will necessitate recalling all the layoff members," Massetti says.

Northwest says it will be a several days before it can tell employees if they've been bumped off the company roster.

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