Northwest Attendants Approve Pay Cuts

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

Flight attendants at Northwest Airlines accepted a pay cut deal on Tuesday, the final step in the airline's push to get $1.4 billion a year in savings from its workers.

Northwest was set to exit bankruptcy protection on Thursday with or without the approval of flight attendants. And flight attendants have been working under similar pay cuts since July, when Northwest imposed new terms with a bankruptcy judge's permission.

But acceptance by the rank-and-file will put an estimated $15,000 in their hands in exchange for their concessions, an opportunity they would have lost after Northwest emerges from bankruptcy protection. And for the airline it removes the threat of a strike, although that had been appearing increasingly remote.

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The cuts capped top flight attendant pay at about $35,400 a year, down from $44,190 before Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection, according to the union.


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/29/business/main2865386.shtml

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That is not a lot of money. Means that if the attendant is single they will probably have to work a 2nd job or live cheap. But yet the airline execs continue to reward themselves.

[Erika]

1. The assault on the middle class continues

as well as its elimination. W's legacy.

[jollyreaper2112]

2. fan-fucking-tastic!

That shows some real leadership on the part of the executives. What say we give them aother round of bonuses?

[Rage for Order]

3. These employees should've paid attention to American Airlines

They finally turned a profit and decided that rather than give the employees who took a pay cut 2 years ago a raise, it would be better to reward the executives with bonuses.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/4809696.html

"Labor leaders confronted the CEO of American Airlines' parent today over management bonuses, but shareholders rejected a union resolution to let shareholders vote on executive pay."

"Union leaders said the bonuses broke a management promise to share gains as the company recovered from huge losses. But Chairman and Chief Executive Gerard Arpey declined to back down on the bonuses, which totaled about $160 million in stock."

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Morons.

Sometimes I think the Northwest union workers WANT to be out of their jobs due to their constant caving in to the greedy corporatists and their lack of solidarity.

[Fierce]

8. I totally agree.

If the pilots, flight attendants and ground crew workers had stood with the mechanics when they struck, this whole debacle would have looked very different.

And in any case, I'd have a lot more respect for the pilots, flight attendants and ground crew workers.

[peacebuzzard]

11. True, solidarity does not exist anymore, anywhere.

No one is paying attention to what matters.

Too many lost souls in the maze.

I have these lyrics in my head this morning as I am reading this thread:

Honesty is such a lonely word. Everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard. And mostly what I need from you. Billy Joel.

P.S. I am one of those overworked flight attendants just like so many of the other overworked underpaid unemployed and underemployed fellow compatriot workers, here, in this country, today. Just another sad day in America.

[gravity]

5. Well if you want cheaper air fares

airlines have to cut cost somewhere. You can't force a company to pay higher wages when they aren't even making any profits to begin with.

The CEO needs to take a larger pay cut though, because the management is probably most responsible for the falling profits.

[skyounkin]

6. The ceo's

take the credit and the pay when the company does well, but screw the wage slaves when the times are bad- sounds fair to me........:sarcasm:

[provis99]

7. Northwest lost money because of incompetence at the top

Southwest airlines pays the best, and has the best benefits package, as well as being profitable. The reason? The CEOs and union work together to ensure corporate success. The Northwest CEOs are almost as bad as those at Delta Airlines; Delta would have been better led if chimps had occupied the top leadership posts than the clowns they had.

[pitohui]

14. southwest and don't let facts get in the way of a good talking point

southwest airlines was profitable because it had a huge win on fuel contracts (hedges also known as high stakes gambling), their old fuel contracts are now mostly expired and southwest is going to have to compete on the same terms as everyone else or it will not remain profitable -- it already charges higher fares for less service in my area and has for several years -- in the world of the internet, your business model being based on consumers too stupid to shop for price is only going to take you so far -- i haven't got a better price quote from southwest since 2003 and they don't provide a first class product unlike northwest which rewards regular customers

yeah, northwest has bad managers at the top -- and not getting in on the fuel contract speculation back in the day is a large part of the reason why they went bankrupt -- they had to pay for fuel at real current prices when southwest was getting fuel under the market

what all this has to do w. current realities is completely unclear to me, southwest did not "win" in the marketplace because it paid people better, it "won" because it "won" some huge gambling/hedge bets which it could have just as well lost if fuel prices had gone another way -- northwest management opted not to play that game -- easy to say now almost a decade later that they made a bad decision, always easy to place the right bet in retrospect

there are many things wrong w. northwest, but blaming them for not playing southwest's game of fuel contract hedges is ridiculous --the key is that southwest did not make a profit on selling air tickets per se, it made a profit on its fuel contract hedges

agree that chimps would have provided better leadership at delta or northwest or frankly any of the airlines, even a chimp is right twice a day, though, southwest caught lucky, let's not kid ourselves

most airlines, northwest included, are flying at capacity, the butts are in the seats, the planes are full, so it's hard costs like fuel that keep them from making any real profit, it's all a game of cash flow and hedges, southwest played the game well or had good luck in the game of hedges, northwest didn't, bottom line

[NashVegas]

16. Your Southwest Must Be Different From My Southwest

My Southwest is less expensive to fly on than other airlines 95% of the time I check fares for flights that don't require a 4am wake-up time.

My Southwest's full-cost fare was less expensive than every other single airline out there, when I had to fly home due to a death in the family. Even those airlines that offered supposed bereavement discounts had a price tag at least $150 more than Southwest's full-priced fare.

[Marrah_G]

9. Most people don't realize how bad it is

My guy has worked for Delta for close to 30 years. They just recieved a small raise after Delta came out of bankruptcy. That is after he took so many pay cuts over the last 5 years that he was making what he was making in the 80's. Yes, the 80's.

The more we allow unions to be marginalized the more we will see this of thing.

[peacebuzzard]

10. No way out.

Under the current imposed NW and US legal & political system, striking was not an option. It would have been dealt a fatal Reagan style blow i.e. the NWA mechanics.

The only flight attendants not affected are the new hires who are just probably glad to have a job, any job (1st year pay for new hires is 17k gross)

Yes, the veteran rank and file should have walked with the mechanics and brought the whole company down. Too late for that option now. At the time, everyone knew their labor group was up next on the chopping block.

There are no winners. The negotiations were a joke. There was no negotiating with "the company" aka a group of outside lawyers and mediators vs. the union. The measly undetermined as yet pay out for the flight attendants (based on stock market values and future claim sale outcomes) will only put a couple of thousand dollars cash in unqualified tax dollars to each ragged out overflown and underpaid cabin crew member. Maybe, if we are successful in the stock claim sales a few thousand more may go into the 401k. (I suspect many will just take a tax hit and take the cash to pay immediate bills).

But this is just another sad day in present corporate America. The whole country is in a downward spiral, and the airlines are just a reflection of the rest of the political/economical state of affairs. (sigh)

I hope when the measley pock marked CEO Steenland rings the bell on the stock market floor as NW exits bankruptcy, that he exposes the best of his drooling babbling parasitic persona for the uninterested audience. And that he falls on his ass as well.

[Parche]

12. NWA

Hey fellow airline industry DU'r
I am in the 'Travel' part of the business and I feel your pain.
The airline employees, all of them, have had to endure years of falling pay scales
while the CEO's have benefited from higher wages and bonuses.
I could not imagine starting at 17K, I know a lot of people are looking for employment
and it is fun being in this business sometimes, but most of the times it is not
what it seems.
I am on your side in this, as we all must stick together!!
Let us know how the negotiations, if any, turn out. :hi:

[peacebuzzard]

20. anyone looking for a job as a flight attendant can get one.

(But who would want to if they knew what was required for a pittance of a paycheck. Also absolutely no job security.)

ALL of the airlines are hiring. They no longer have rigid hiring requirements. If you have a GED and are breathing that is good enough.

The best contract of all IMO is a Teamsters negotiated contract with COMAIR (regional with Delta), SO FAR. actually, on edit, I take that back. I believe it was also recently slashed and their minimum rest is down to 8 hours from the minute the jet docks in at the gate until the crew check in time the next morning. The amount of time allowed for rest in a horizontal position is not an issue here.

It is anyone's guess what will happen to Delta, or NWA now that the bankruptcy phase is essentially over.

With the advent of the "open skies" and further deregulations (I see Virgin Atlantic got their deal and is now going to do NY - west coast. The TSA is just a joke, merely a band aid on a glutinous seething problem.

P.S. Nice photo of a 57!

[RamboLiberal]

17. If I had to work as an FA for 17k and there was an emergency

evacuation I'd be tempted to be the first off the plane - the hell with the cheap fare cattle. I'd also be tempted to slap some of the bit*hy passengers, what the hell would I have to lose.

[peacebuzzard]

23. The flights are full of inexperienced flyers these days.

and with the price of gas who can blame them. It is tough to be confined in a metal tube at 30k ft with clueless people for hours. My peeves are still the ones who like to spill their personal situations on a cell phone for everyone to hear or those that try to listen to the DVDs without a headset.

People noise bothers me way more than the jets ever could.

[mountainvue]

13. How much of a pay cut did their CEO take? n/t

[KamaAina]

15. So I'll actually be making (just barely) more than a flight attendant?

Wow! I have arrived! I am somebody! Today I am living the American dream!

:sarcasm:

I wonder if Northworst has any crews based out here. $35,400 a year isn't even very much money on the mainland -- but in the land of $5-a-gallon milk...

[RamboLiberal]

18. Heck you're making more than most of the commuter airlines

pilots. Yeah, some f'in American Dream! Thank you Reagan and Bush voters and the aholes in the SCOTUS who installed *.

[Rambis]

19. then they will cut the pension

That is what corps did to thousands of workers all across this country. Help us by taking less now then boom the * plan gives you prescription drug coverage now so we are dumping you. By the way thanks for agreeing to take less a few years back so we can give you nothing!

[Canuckistanian]

21. They should have made it conditional

Conditional on executive's receiving no extra bonuses or stock options for the same time period.

Didn't one airline's pilots protest against executive's pay raises while they agreed to a similar cut?

[superconnected]

22. Watch other corporations learn from this.