Is Business Booming... Or Are Employees Leaving?

Could this be a sign of improved fortunes at beleagured carrier Northwest Airlines -- or an indication of low morale? A memo obtained by a Minneapolis/St. Paul television station indicates Northwest is recalling all 1,131 flight attendants currently on voluntary and involuntary furloughs, to fill vacancies at their former bases.

Suzanne Boda, vice-president for inflight services at Northwest, confirmed the details of the memo to the Associated Press -- adding Northwest will also bring back an unspecified number of pilots. The recall is effective September 30.

Refusal to respond to the recall would be considered a notice of resignation from the carrier, according to the Association of Flight Attendants.

The reason for the callback? Better-than-expected passenger loads, the carrier says, which Northwest expects will continue through 2007 in spite of recent security jitters. One spokesman for the airline admits, however, the recalls are also due to current employees chosing to leave the airline.

"We're going through a lot of attrition with flight attendants retiring and people accepting other positions," said Northwest's Roman Blahoski to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Northwest also reports "unusually high" levels of sick leave recently among its 7,300 active flight attendants -- actions not officially endorsed by the AFA, said interim union president Mollie Reiley... despite recent plans to conduct a series of random strikes against the carrier after Northwest imposed a new contract on its FAs.

The higher-than-average sick leave is not "a form of planned CHAOS," said Reiley, referring to the "Create Havoc Across Our System" plan.

As Aero-News reported last month, a New York judge temporarily blocked those strikes while he decides whether flight attendants are bound to the Railway Labor Act of 1931, which forbids strikes against a bankrupt transportation company.

Those employees that choose to come back to Northwest -- some have moved on to jobs at other carriers, or outside the industry -- will resume their jobs at the sharply reduced wages either imposed (flight attendants) or agreed to (pilots) in the wake of Northwest's filing of Chapter 11 bankruptcy one year ago.

Still... for many, any job is better than no job at all.

"I think it's a positive sign that thing are slowly turning around. I'm very happy about it," said local flight attendants union leader Camilla Wolkerstorfer.

FMI: www.nwa.com, www.nwaafa.org