Photos Traveler Paul Quel Labor analyst Steve Hine More from MPR Clock starts ticking toward strike at Northwest Airlines (07/20/2005) Tools E-mail this page Print this page Sponsor

A strike might not cause turbulence for Northwest business flyers
by Annie Baxter, Minnesota Public Radio
July 21, 2005

Northwest business flyer Paul Quel says he's considering whether he should alter his travel plans in the event of a mechanics strike. State officials and travel industry workers say a walk out probably would not choke business travel -- or the local economy. (MPR Photo/Annie Baxter)

Northwest Airlines' mechanics are gearing up for a possible strike, now that the National Mediation Board has declared an impasse in the talks between the union and the airline. The board's announcement permits mechanics to begin a strike August 19th, before the end of the busy summer travel season. But Northwest has been lining up replacement mechanics and maintains the company will be able to operate its full schedule. And with nearly a month to go before the strike deadline, Northwest passengers don't seem to be sweating about a possible walk-out.

St. Paul, Minn. — In the hours just before the National Mediation Board started a 30-day countdown to a strike deadline, a small sample of business travelers at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport expressed concern, but not alarm, about a potential walkout.

On one end of the spectrum, there's Dave Quel, who flies several times a week on Northwest and lives in Detroit, another city where Northwest is the dominant carrier.

"I have lots of reservations booked between now and the end of the year with Northwest," Quel says. "So it's giving me some pause to consider what to do."

But on the other end of the spectrum, there are travelers like Mack Simmons, who lives in the Twin Cites and says a strike would only be a minor irritation, even though he says he flies Northwest every week.

"I'll fly Continental," he says glibly. "(It's) probably cheaper."

It would take a protracted strike to inconvenience business travelers greatly at Personnel Decisions International in Minneapolis. That's the view of the company's global travel manager Mike Krebsbach, who is also the president of North Central Business Travel Association. Krebsbach says even though 70 percnet of his company's business travel is on Northwest, a strike won't choke their travel plans.

"Personally I think our people are savvy in their travel; they work around it. Generally speaking, they react quickly. They know what to do," he asserts.

Krebsbach says other airline strikes and the changes in air travel after 9-11 have taught business travelers they need to be flexible.

"You hate to say it," he says, "but people are getting used to dealing with issues like this."

And the Minnesota economy may well show equal resilience to a strike. Steve Hine with the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development says the Northwest's pilots strike in 1998 only slightly bruised the state's economy. That strike grounded the airline for 15 days.

"There was a decline in employment for a month," Hine explains. "But we got right back on track when the strike was over, and certainly the strike was not enough to derail a very strong recovery or strong expansion."

Hine says that the current economy could be a bit more vulnerable to the baleful effects of a strike now than it was in 1998.

"But the one bit of experience we've had with this sort of thing is while we might see a blip in unemployment and a drop, albeit slight, in the number of jobs, the impact shouldn't be long lasting," he says.

But that's contingent, of course, on a strike that itself does not wear on too long.