Pledge Foretells Big Cuts In Workforce

It was designed as a briefing for stockholders, but it's a chilling look into the future for Northwest Airlines workers. Now in bankruptcy, the airline Friday revealed its plans to restructure -- including 2,644 layoffs and the desire to obtain from labor another $195 million in pay and benefit concessions.

Northwest Airlines is making ready for what it sees as war -- a battle between low-cost carriers, not just for control of the commercial aviation market, but for survival.

If the plan presented in New York on Friday survives, Northwest will outsource much of its international traffic to foreign carriers. It may start a regional airline and plans to cut salaries even more than it has to this point. For instance, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the carrier would chop a flight attendant's salary 20-percent just to keep afloat.

Northwest flight crews, who've already taken a huge cut in pay, aren't willing to stand by idly and let this happen.

"We're not willing to let them outsource a bunch of jobs to regional carriers," union leader Mark McClain told the Star-Tribune last week. "That is flying Northwest pilots should do."

Still, there is talk that Northwest will ground many of the aircraft it leases to regional partners like Mesaba and Pinnacle, prompting a warning from union leaders: "An attempt by management to rush this complex issue to completion through the Chapter 11 process may lead to a major confrontation with this pilot group."

FMI: www.nwa.com