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Northwest IS On Strike
Thats right, a strike is now in progress. Here is how we stand:
Crossing picket lines
Flight Attendants
Sky Caps
Ticket Agents
Gate Agents
ramp workers
pilots(?)
Striking
mechanics
so, while we wait, thing to ask ourselves:
1. How long will it last?
2. Will it still be safe to fly?
3. Will this be another Eastern Air?
4. Will NW file Chap. 11?
5. Will the Workers be fired?
6. Will the unions give the cuts?
Here we go again.. First time in seven years.
NWA news (continued)
Started by airline55, Aug 20 2005 04:11 AM
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#2
Posted 20 August 2005 - 01:36 PM
piercey
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1. not that long
2. yup
3. nope
4. yup, but this is expected period
5. depends how long. a weekend and they give up, no. two weeks and they are not making progress, yup
6. If they don't, then a lot of members will become unemployed real fast.
2. yup
3. nope
4. yup, but this is expected period
5. depends how long. a weekend and they give up, no. two weeks and they are not making progress, yup
6. If they don't, then a lot of members will become unemployed real fast.
#3
Posted 20 August 2005 - 10:02 PM
doug_Or
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1 Permantant
2 Relatively
3 There are almost no parrelles, except for the fact that employees are on strike
4 Yes, but they probably would even without the strike
5 Can they be?
6 The unions will give the paycuts to offer the 176 million in savings (as they have already offered), but they won't give the jobs away (hence my answer to #1)
2 Relatively
3 There are almost no parrelles, except for the fact that employees are on strike
4 Yes, but they probably would even without the strike
5 Can they be?
6 The unions will give the paycuts to offer the 176 million in savings (as they have already offered), but they won't give the jobs away (hence my answer to #1)
#4
Posted 20 August 2005 - 10:28 PM
airline55
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well, we are almost through the first day of the strike and things seem to be going well.
out of about 1,500 daily flights, there have been about fifty incidents involving delays or cancelled flights.
At about five p.m. I went on and look up NW flights from DTW, about 12 delays, but the weather is the most likely cause, weather hear has been miserable.
One incident, a 757 that blew four tires on landing at DTW, looks like the pilot landed with the brakes on.
so far, the biggest problem for NW is liberal-union supporting t.v. reporters. (channel 4 seems to be strongly pro-strikers).
Looks like NW was ready and did a good job today, lets see how many more days this lasts.
I think it will be over before Friday, NW will get the cust and simply fire some of the strikers in order to get the job reductions. Lets hope they can avoid Chap. 11, not the ideal way to solve your union problems as it involvees several other actions that must be compleated before you can exit chap. 11.
Best of luck to Northwest Airlines.
out of about 1,500 daily flights, there have been about fifty incidents involving delays or cancelled flights.
At about five p.m. I went on and look up NW flights from DTW, about 12 delays, but the weather is the most likely cause, weather hear has been miserable.
One incident, a 757 that blew four tires on landing at DTW, looks like the pilot landed with the brakes on.
so far, the biggest problem for NW is liberal-union supporting t.v. reporters. (channel 4 seems to be strongly pro-strikers).
Looks like NW was ready and did a good job today, lets see how many more days this lasts.
I think it will be over before Friday, NW will get the cust and simply fire some of the strikers in order to get the job reductions. Lets hope they can avoid Chap. 11, not the ideal way to solve your union problems as it involvees several other actions that must be compleated before you can exit chap. 11.
Best of luck to Northwest Airlines.
#5
Posted 20 August 2005 - 10:50 PM
airline55
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I take that comment on media liberals back, bad luck is NW's biggest problem, a plane at DTW had to make an emergency landing because smoke came through the Air conditioner. Not that big of news, this has already happend this year when the mx were working.
We have a very, errmm, investigative (to be nice) press in DTW, if the mx were not on strike, this would not even be news.
We have a very, errmm, investigative (to be nice) press in DTW, if the mx were not on strike, this would not even be news.
#6
Posted 22 August 2005 - 04:35 PM
Scalpel4
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Posted from NY Times:
August 22, 2005
Well-Laid Plan Kept Northwest Flying in Strike
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DETROIT, Aug. 21 - As Northwest Airlines rode out a full weekend with its mechanics' union on strike, it was enjoying the fruits of an elaborate plan that was meant to not only keep its planes flying, but also to overhaul the way its workers do their jobs.
Northwest's plan to use temporary workers in place of striking members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association took 18 months to create, company executives said, and it required extensive analysis that began on the tarmac at each of its airports. It also required the cooperation of other unions and the federal government - and even consultation with the White House.
The strategy passed its initial test over a light weekend of flights, but its success or failure will become clearer this week as the airline resumes its normal weekday schedule.
Union members walking picket lines at Northwest's major international hub here on Sunday argued that the airline, which they struck over its demand for $176 million in wage and benefit cuts, would see mechanical problems mount as the week progresses.
"There's just so many little things that will start compiling before it becomes epidemic," said Kevin Opuda, 45, a striking mechanic who has been with the airline for 18 years.
But one labor expert said Northwest's ability to switch to new work routines and keep operating, at least at the outset, sends an important signal to unions that strikes may have lost their power as tools to fight job losses and other cuts.
"This gives all of the opportunities now to the companies and to the replacement workers, and it makes it very, very grim for strikers," said David Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John's University in New York.
As relations with the mechanics' union deteriorated, Northwest developed two goals, executives said. Along with staying in the air, it wanted to cut costs by eliminating 2,000 jobs and embracing the efficient maintenance systems used by JetBlue Airways and other low-fare airlines.
"It's a function not only of having new persons, but starting yesterday, we have a new business model," Northwest's chief executive, Douglas M. Steenland, said Sunday in an interview.
JetBlue, which does not have union workers, and other low-fare airlines have much lower costs than traditional airlines like Northwest.
For one thing, these airlines do not perform extensive aircraft checks, called heavy maintenance, instead farming out the work to outside contractors. Northwest has done the same under its new work plan, Mr. Steenland said, potentially saving millions of dollars a year.
But the plan, created by Andrew C. Roberts, Northwest's executive vice president for operations, went much further than simply outsourcing, drawing from ideas tried at other airlines and incorporating new ones.
"None of the building blocks are unique to Northwest," Mr. Roberts said Sunday, "but the combination is unique to the industry, and the specifics are peculiar to Northwest."
Over the last 18 months, the airline analyzed every job represented by the mechanics' union at every airport and calculated the skills required to fix each of its planes. It then decided how many of those workers it actually needed and what kind of replacements it would require in the event of a strike.
Northwest officials at each airport were given plans at the beginning of the year spelling out how the airline wanted jobs to be performed. Then, three months ago, the airline began hiring replacement workers, who received extensive classroom and hands-on training in Tucson.
There, the replacements, all licensed mechanics, practiced repairs on Northwest planes that the airline had parked in the desert near Tucson when business fell in 2001. The only plane the workers did not learn to fix was the airline's new Airbus A-330, which it flies overseas. Those repairs are being left to Northwest supervisors, Mr. Roberts said.
Northwest also began an effort in Washington to convince federal officials that its plan would work, according to people involved in the discussions.
The airline's management assured the Bush administration that it did not want the president to convene a Presidential Emergency Board, which could order workers back to their jobs in case of a strike, as outlined in the Railway Labor Act. Instead, the airline said, it wanted the chance to carry out its plan.
Last week, White House officials said President Bush did not plan to intervene, since the strike did not threaten to disrupt the nation's transportation system.
Meanwhile, airline executives met numerous times with officials at the Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, walking them through its training procedures and assuring them that its planes and mechanics would meet all federal standards.
Mr. Roberts said none of Northwest's unions promised up front that they would not stage sympathy strikes, like the one that snarled British Airways' operations in London this month, when its workers briefly walked off the job in support of striking catering crews.
In fact, Northwest had also hired replacement flight attendants in case their union, which is aligned with the mechanics' union, walked out.
But once the strike began, Northwest's unions said they would stay on the job, as they are legally required to do. And some differences between the airline's old and new approaches began to appear.
Before the strike, union rules specified that only members of the mechanics' union, known as AMFA, could deliver planes to airport gates. But on Saturday, the pilot of a Northwest 757 in Detroit, upon discovering his plane was not ready, hopped into a pickup truck and went to the hangar to fetch his plane, rather than keep crew and passengers waiting, airline officials said.
Meanwhile, members of the machinists' union, which usually handles tasks like baggage handling and customer service, took on the task of cleaning Northwest's cabins between flights at its hubs here and in Minneapolis, a job that was previously done by the mechanics' union.
Steve Gordon, president of the machinists' union local here, said he did not enjoy crossing another union's picket line. But Mr. Gordon, whose union used to represent mechanics until AMFA won an organizing drive in 1999, said he preferred to see his workers taking on the mechanics' old tasks, instead of having Northwest hire outside contractors.
"I'm going to make sure my members have a chance to get that work," Mr. Gordon said.
Northwest's situation is somewhat unusual. The job market is awash in licensed airplane mechanics, who were among 130,000 workers in the airline industry to lose their jobs since the September 2001 attacks.
Likewise, the mechanics' union is a rebel organization that is not part of the A.F.L-C.I.O. and has few strong allies in the labor movement. It has angered other unions by convincing their members to join its ranks, in part by promising never to grant concessions to the airlines despite the industry's deep woes.
But Professor Gregory suggested that if one airline can use a walkout as an opportunity to cut jobs and revamp its operations, other airlines, and indeed companies in other industries, could do the same.
In particular, that could be a threat to the United Auto Workers union, whose leaders are meeting this week to discuss General Motors' bid for lower health care costs in the face of mounting losses.
The major carmakers have rarely tried to operate during U.A.W. strikes. The most recent one, at G.M. in 1998, shut down virtually the entire company.
But Professor Gregory noted that Toyota, Honda and other foreign companies do not have unionized workers at their American plants. If replacement workers and new work rules that lower costs could save G.M. and Ford, "that's a no-brainer," Professor Gregory said.
Northwest's contingency plan was an open secret at the airline. AMFA officials called the plan an attempt to bust the union, and argued that the replacements hired by the airline could not match the experience of union members. Northwest says the replacement workers have 5 to 10 years of experience at other major airlines.
As the strike deadline approached, the union focused on job losses, not the job redesign that Northwest has started. And union officials repeatedly contended this weekend that although its planes were flying, Northwest's operations were not running smoothly.
"They're lying," said Dennis Sutton, vice president of AMFA's local union, said here on Sunday. If the airline spent 18 months preparing for the strike, "they did a terrible job," he added.
Mr. Sutton denied that AMFA had been caught off guard by Northwest's plan to keep operating. In fact, he said two incidents here on Saturday, in which a flight bound for Pittsburgh turned back because of smoke in the cockpit and four tires on a plane arriving from Seattle burst on landing, were proof that the airline was being hurt by unskilled mechanics. Northwest, for its part, said the incidents were not out of the ordinary and were unrelated to the strike.
The airline did have some delays over the weekend in getting its planes off the ground. Analysts estimated that about half of its flights were late. The airline would not give specifics on delays but said only about 2 percent of its flights were canceled, a normal industry rate.
N. Walter Goins, a Northwest pilot, waited several hours here for a jet to be repaired before a flight to Los Angeles. But Mr. Goins said the delay was understandable. "Rather than doing a slapdash job, they're taking their time," he said.
Northwest switched to its lighter fall schedule on Saturday, the first day of the strike. The airline was scheduled to operate 1,381 flights on Sunday and 1,473 on Monday, down from about 1,600 on a typical summer day.
Mr. Steenland, the Northwest chief executive, said the company would decide over the next week whether the temporary workers hired by the airline would be offered permanent jobs.
Under federal law, the two sides in the strike must be open to continued negotiations. But no matter whether AMFA returns or the replacements stay on, the new work methods "absolutely" will stay in place, Mr. Steenland said.
Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting for this article.
August 22, 2005
Well-Laid Plan Kept Northwest Flying in Strike
By MICHELINE MAYNARD
DETROIT, Aug. 21 - As Northwest Airlines rode out a full weekend with its mechanics' union on strike, it was enjoying the fruits of an elaborate plan that was meant to not only keep its planes flying, but also to overhaul the way its workers do their jobs.
Northwest's plan to use temporary workers in place of striking members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association took 18 months to create, company executives said, and it required extensive analysis that began on the tarmac at each of its airports. It also required the cooperation of other unions and the federal government - and even consultation with the White House.
The strategy passed its initial test over a light weekend of flights, but its success or failure will become clearer this week as the airline resumes its normal weekday schedule.
Union members walking picket lines at Northwest's major international hub here on Sunday argued that the airline, which they struck over its demand for $176 million in wage and benefit cuts, would see mechanical problems mount as the week progresses.
"There's just so many little things that will start compiling before it becomes epidemic," said Kevin Opuda, 45, a striking mechanic who has been with the airline for 18 years.
But one labor expert said Northwest's ability to switch to new work routines and keep operating, at least at the outset, sends an important signal to unions that strikes may have lost their power as tools to fight job losses and other cuts.
"This gives all of the opportunities now to the companies and to the replacement workers, and it makes it very, very grim for strikers," said David Gregory, a labor law professor at St. John's University in New York.
As relations with the mechanics' union deteriorated, Northwest developed two goals, executives said. Along with staying in the air, it wanted to cut costs by eliminating 2,000 jobs and embracing the efficient maintenance systems used by JetBlue Airways and other low-fare airlines.
"It's a function not only of having new persons, but starting yesterday, we have a new business model," Northwest's chief executive, Douglas M. Steenland, said Sunday in an interview.
JetBlue, which does not have union workers, and other low-fare airlines have much lower costs than traditional airlines like Northwest.
For one thing, these airlines do not perform extensive aircraft checks, called heavy maintenance, instead farming out the work to outside contractors. Northwest has done the same under its new work plan, Mr. Steenland said, potentially saving millions of dollars a year.
But the plan, created by Andrew C. Roberts, Northwest's executive vice president for operations, went much further than simply outsourcing, drawing from ideas tried at other airlines and incorporating new ones.
"None of the building blocks are unique to Northwest," Mr. Roberts said Sunday, "but the combination is unique to the industry, and the specifics are peculiar to Northwest."
Over the last 18 months, the airline analyzed every job represented by the mechanics' union at every airport and calculated the skills required to fix each of its planes. It then decided how many of those workers it actually needed and what kind of replacements it would require in the event of a strike.
Northwest officials at each airport were given plans at the beginning of the year spelling out how the airline wanted jobs to be performed. Then, three months ago, the airline began hiring replacement workers, who received extensive classroom and hands-on training in Tucson.
There, the replacements, all licensed mechanics, practiced repairs on Northwest planes that the airline had parked in the desert near Tucson when business fell in 2001. The only plane the workers did not learn to fix was the airline's new Airbus A-330, which it flies overseas. Those repairs are being left to Northwest supervisors, Mr. Roberts said.
Northwest also began an effort in Washington to convince federal officials that its plan would work, according to people involved in the discussions.
The airline's management assured the Bush administration that it did not want the president to convene a Presidential Emergency Board, which could order workers back to their jobs in case of a strike, as outlined in the Railway Labor Act. Instead, the airline said, it wanted the chance to carry out its plan.
Last week, White House officials said President Bush did not plan to intervene, since the strike did not threaten to disrupt the nation's transportation system.
Meanwhile, airline executives met numerous times with officials at the Transportation Department and the Federal Aviation Administration, walking them through its training procedures and assuring them that its planes and mechanics would meet all federal standards.
Mr. Roberts said none of Northwest's unions promised up front that they would not stage sympathy strikes, like the one that snarled British Airways' operations in London this month, when its workers briefly walked off the job in support of striking catering crews.
In fact, Northwest had also hired replacement flight attendants in case their union, which is aligned with the mechanics' union, walked out.
But once the strike began, Northwest's unions said they would stay on the job, as they are legally required to do. And some differences between the airline's old and new approaches began to appear.
Before the strike, union rules specified that only members of the mechanics' union, known as AMFA, could deliver planes to airport gates. But on Saturday, the pilot of a Northwest 757 in Detroit, upon discovering his plane was not ready, hopped into a pickup truck and went to the hangar to fetch his plane, rather than keep crew and passengers waiting, airline officials said.
Meanwhile, members of the machinists' union, which usually handles tasks like baggage handling and customer service, took on the task of cleaning Northwest's cabins between flights at its hubs here and in Minneapolis, a job that was previously done by the mechanics' union.
Steve Gordon, president of the machinists' union local here, said he did not enjoy crossing another union's picket line. But Mr. Gordon, whose union used to represent mechanics until AMFA won an organizing drive in 1999, said he preferred to see his workers taking on the mechanics' old tasks, instead of having Northwest hire outside contractors.
"I'm going to make sure my members have a chance to get that work," Mr. Gordon said.
Northwest's situation is somewhat unusual. The job market is awash in licensed airplane mechanics, who were among 130,000 workers in the airline industry to lose their jobs since the September 2001 attacks.
Likewise, the mechanics' union is a rebel organization that is not part of the A.F.L-C.I.O. and has few strong allies in the labor movement. It has angered other unions by convincing their members to join its ranks, in part by promising never to grant concessions to the airlines despite the industry's deep woes.
But Professor Gregory suggested that if one airline can use a walkout as an opportunity to cut jobs and revamp its operations, other airlines, and indeed companies in other industries, could do the same.
In particular, that could be a threat to the United Auto Workers union, whose leaders are meeting this week to discuss General Motors' bid for lower health care costs in the face of mounting losses.
The major carmakers have rarely tried to operate during U.A.W. strikes. The most recent one, at G.M. in 1998, shut down virtually the entire company.
But Professor Gregory noted that Toyota, Honda and other foreign companies do not have unionized workers at their American plants. If replacement workers and new work rules that lower costs could save G.M. and Ford, "that's a no-brainer," Professor Gregory said.
Northwest's contingency plan was an open secret at the airline. AMFA officials called the plan an attempt to bust the union, and argued that the replacements hired by the airline could not match the experience of union members. Northwest says the replacement workers have 5 to 10 years of experience at other major airlines.
As the strike deadline approached, the union focused on job losses, not the job redesign that Northwest has started. And union officials repeatedly contended this weekend that although its planes were flying, Northwest's operations were not running smoothly.
"They're lying," said Dennis Sutton, vice president of AMFA's local union, said here on Sunday. If the airline spent 18 months preparing for the strike, "they did a terrible job," he added.
Mr. Sutton denied that AMFA had been caught off guard by Northwest's plan to keep operating. In fact, he said two incidents here on Saturday, in which a flight bound for Pittsburgh turned back because of smoke in the cockpit and four tires on a plane arriving from Seattle burst on landing, were proof that the airline was being hurt by unskilled mechanics. Northwest, for its part, said the incidents were not out of the ordinary and were unrelated to the strike.
The airline did have some delays over the weekend in getting its planes off the ground. Analysts estimated that about half of its flights were late. The airline would not give specifics on delays but said only about 2 percent of its flights were canceled, a normal industry rate.
N. Walter Goins, a Northwest pilot, waited several hours here for a jet to be repaired before a flight to Los Angeles. But Mr. Goins said the delay was understandable. "Rather than doing a slapdash job, they're taking their time," he said.
Northwest switched to its lighter fall schedule on Saturday, the first day of the strike. The airline was scheduled to operate 1,381 flights on Sunday and 1,473 on Monday, down from about 1,600 on a typical summer day.
Mr. Steenland, the Northwest chief executive, said the company would decide over the next week whether the temporary workers hired by the airline would be offered permanent jobs.
Under federal law, the two sides in the strike must be open to continued negotiations. But no matter whether AMFA returns or the replacements stay on, the new work methods "absolutely" will stay in place, Mr. Steenland said.
Jeremy W. Peters contributed reporting for this article.
#7
Posted 22 August 2005 - 06:33 PM
airline55
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Workers Leaving Picket Lines
Our Local Fox News station here in Detroit reported that some union members are leaving the picket lines and returning to work at the reduced wages. So, looks good for Northwest.
Plane Problems on Aug. 20 explained
On NWA's website today, they explained why they had so many problems the first day using replacements. On Aug. 19, mx about to strike started taking part in a work slow down.
Union says 154 flights delayed today
The NW MX union said today that 154 flights are delayed on the first week day of the strike. However, just as any estimate from management would be low, this estimate is most likely exagerated. However, if this is the right guess, this would mean that only 1/15 of all of todays flights were delayed. This number is likely to get better tomorrow as replacements become acustomed to the schedule. This is far from the complete shut down that the mx had said would happen.
To check flight status out of hubs go here:
Flight Departure Status
or:
Flight Arrival Status
Our Local Fox News station here in Detroit reported that some union members are leaving the picket lines and returning to work at the reduced wages. So, looks good for Northwest.
Plane Problems on Aug. 20 explained
On NWA's website today, they explained why they had so many problems the first day using replacements. On Aug. 19, mx about to strike started taking part in a work slow down.
Union says 154 flights delayed today
The NW MX union said today that 154 flights are delayed on the first week day of the strike. However, just as any estimate from management would be low, this estimate is most likely exagerated. However, if this is the right guess, this would mean that only 1/15 of all of todays flights were delayed. This number is likely to get better tomorrow as replacements become acustomed to the schedule. This is far from the complete shut down that the mx had said would happen.
To check flight status out of hubs go here:
Flight Departure Status
or:
Flight Arrival Status
#8
Posted 22 August 2005 - 08:18 PM
piercey
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Workers Leaving Picket Lines
Our Local Fox News station here in Detroit reported that some union members are leaving the picket lines and returning to work at the reduced wages. So, looks good for Northwest
Smart people, they will have a job after this
#9
Posted 22 August 2005 - 09:29 PM
Scalpel4
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Originally posted by airline55
Our Local Fox News station here in Detroit reported that some union members are leaving the picket lines and returning to work at the reduced wages.
Take this with a pound of salt before decidiing it to be true. After all, it is FOX, the national neocon network.
#10
Posted 22 August 2005 - 10:01 PM
doug_Or
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Current word is 750 MEL deferals (usual load is around 250), so as these become due we can look for a lot more delays.
#11
Posted 24 August 2005 - 06:33 PM
Scalpel4
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News from my service:
NORTHWEST AIRLINES HAS VOWED to keep flying during a strike by aircraft mechanics, but the airline is experiencing significant delays despite hiring replacement workers in an attempt to keep up with maintenance.
About 4,400 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) walked off the job at Northwest on Aug. 20 when discussions broke down over company plans to cut the mechanic workforce in half and slash salaries by 25 percent. Northwest, which has long had contingency plans in place in the event of a strike, immediately brought in replacement workers.
The airline claimed that it operated 98 percent of its flights over the weekend, but industry observers said that the strike was causing about half of Northwest flights to be delayed. Northwest said it expects to operate 96 percent of its normal schedule over the first seven days of the strike; that would mean that about 400 flights would be canceled, compared to a norm of about 125 flights.
Northwest said that the problems would ease as the airline transitions into its strike-contingency plan; AMFA predicted that delays would worsen as the strike goes on.
AMFA leaders vowed to wait out the company in the dispute, but the union's leverage was damaged when other unions failed to back the mechanics' strike.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday that maintenance standards are being adhered to at Northwest; the agency brought in extra inspectors to oversee the work of replacement workers.
NORTHWEST AIRLINES HAS VOWED to keep flying during a strike by aircraft mechanics, but the airline is experiencing significant delays despite hiring replacement workers in an attempt to keep up with maintenance.
About 4,400 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) walked off the job at Northwest on Aug. 20 when discussions broke down over company plans to cut the mechanic workforce in half and slash salaries by 25 percent. Northwest, which has long had contingency plans in place in the event of a strike, immediately brought in replacement workers.
The airline claimed that it operated 98 percent of its flights over the weekend, but industry observers said that the strike was causing about half of Northwest flights to be delayed. Northwest said it expects to operate 96 percent of its normal schedule over the first seven days of the strike; that would mean that about 400 flights would be canceled, compared to a norm of about 125 flights.
Northwest said that the problems would ease as the airline transitions into its strike-contingency plan; AMFA predicted that delays would worsen as the strike goes on.
AMFA leaders vowed to wait out the company in the dispute, but the union's leverage was damaged when other unions failed to back the mechanics' strike.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Monday that maintenance standards are being adhered to at Northwest; the agency brought in extra inspectors to oversee the work of replacement workers.
#12
Posted 25 August 2005 - 04:29 PM
Scalpel4
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NYTimes article
DETROIT, Aug. 24 - Beyond the highly visible labor confrontation taking place between Northwest Airlines and its striking mechanics' union is another shadow battle that has nothing to do with wages or benefits.
As the strike presses on with no resolution in sight, it has become increasingly clear that the critical fight to be won for either Northwest or its mechanics is the battle for consumer trust. For the airline, that means convincing travelers that flying Northwest will not result in being stranded in an airport for hours while mechanics - who the union says are rookies - repair planes that may be unsafe.
Industry analysts say that by convincing passengers that safety priorities and on-time performance have not changed, the airline can weather the strike.
So far, several analysts said, Northwest appears to have the upper hand because there have not been any major disruptions. But the strike is still in the early stages, and the public relations dynamics could shift fairly quickly if delays and cancellations greatly increase.
Determining whether traveling with Northwest is going smoothly has been difficult because the airline has not released much specific data to support its optimistic claims. And whenever it has said operations are normal, the mechanics' union has immediately issued a rebuttal.
At first, the company did not provide any data on cancellations. When it did post numbers on Tuesday, it said it had canceled only 3 percent, or about 46, of its 1,473 flights for Monday. By contrast, the mechanics union said the airline had canceled 33 flights out of Detroit alone on Monday. By late Wednesday, cancellations continued to decline, with the airline recording completion of all but about 2 percent of its flights.
Independently compiled statistics from FlightStats, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore., show similar cancellation rates through Monday. FlightStats, which bases its statistics on data from the Federal Aviation Administration and other sources, also reported that during the first three days of the strike, 47 percent of Northwest's flights departed or arrived at least 15 minutes late. The data showed that 31 percent of Northwest's flights were delayed last week, before the strike began.
Rod Caborn, executive vice president for YPB&R, a travel marketing firm based in Orlando, Fla., said Northwest had created a perception that it had won. "Perception is reality," he said.
The union counters that it may just be a matter of time.
"Our morale is very high," O. V. Delle-Femine, the union's executive director, said in a telephone interview. "The reports I get every day are that Northwest's cancellations are increasing. They've spent three months training people to service five different types of planes. They don't know what they're supposed to do. It's going to be a disaster. The flying public is going to pay the price for flying Northwest."
By Wednesday night, as the strike ended its fifth day, the two sides had not yet gone back to the bargaining table, nor had they announced plans to do so.
So far, for passengers, flights seem to be operating as normal, according to Northwest passengers interviewed Wednesday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus.
"Quite honestly, I haven't really noticed a lapse of any kind since the strike began," said Jerry Blackwell, 43, a lawyer from Minneapolis, who said he flew Northwest two to three times a week. "It seems as though there have been few disruptions."
Northwest's plan to win the confidence of air travelers began well before the picket lines went up. Months before 4,430 mechanics, cleaners and other members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off the job on Saturday, Northwest's corporate communications department began planning a public relations component to the airline's strike contingency plan.
Northwest anticipated that the union would question the credentials of the 1,200 replacement mechanics to try to convince the public that flying Northwest during the strike would not be safe. So part of the public relations strategy, devised by Northwest's senior vice president for corporate and brand communications, Mary Carroll Linder, was to emphasize the qualifications of the replacement mechanics.
Ms. Linder oversaw an effort to post strike-related questions and answers for consumers on Northwest's Web site. The site states that 65 percent of the replacement mechanics have at least 10 years of experience. Ms. Linder declined to be interviewed for this article, and a Northwest spokesman said the company would not comment on its public relations strategy.
Once the strike began, managing the message proved difficult. This became evident on Saturday afternoon when Northwest found that every delay, cancellation and mechanical problems suddenly became the subject of public scrutiny.
At the airport in Romulus that afternoon, a Northwest plane blew out four tires as it landed. Northwest scrambled to issue a statement explaining the company did not believe that the incident was related to the strike. Then a television station reported that another Northwest plane had to make an emergency landing after reporting smoke in the cabin.
On Wednesday, the airline said a flight from Minneapolis to Bozeman, Mont., developed hyrdraulic issues and had to be diverted to Billings, where it landed without incident. An airline spokesman, Todd Morgano, said it was too early to draw any conclusions about the cause.
Northwest also scrambled to respond to reports of higher-than-average delays and cancellations. The mechanics' union on Saturday began circulating a document with data on delays. Executives were unable at first to determine where the union got its numbers. After finding out the data was from the airline's internal employee Web site, executives rushed to explain that the delays seemed high because they included ones from two Northwest partners.
DETROIT, Aug. 24 - Beyond the highly visible labor confrontation taking place between Northwest Airlines and its striking mechanics' union is another shadow battle that has nothing to do with wages or benefits.
As the strike presses on with no resolution in sight, it has become increasingly clear that the critical fight to be won for either Northwest or its mechanics is the battle for consumer trust. For the airline, that means convincing travelers that flying Northwest will not result in being stranded in an airport for hours while mechanics - who the union says are rookies - repair planes that may be unsafe.
Industry analysts say that by convincing passengers that safety priorities and on-time performance have not changed, the airline can weather the strike.
So far, several analysts said, Northwest appears to have the upper hand because there have not been any major disruptions. But the strike is still in the early stages, and the public relations dynamics could shift fairly quickly if delays and cancellations greatly increase.
Determining whether traveling with Northwest is going smoothly has been difficult because the airline has not released much specific data to support its optimistic claims. And whenever it has said operations are normal, the mechanics' union has immediately issued a rebuttal.
At first, the company did not provide any data on cancellations. When it did post numbers on Tuesday, it said it had canceled only 3 percent, or about 46, of its 1,473 flights for Monday. By contrast, the mechanics union said the airline had canceled 33 flights out of Detroit alone on Monday. By late Wednesday, cancellations continued to decline, with the airline recording completion of all but about 2 percent of its flights.
Independently compiled statistics from FlightStats, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore., show similar cancellation rates through Monday. FlightStats, which bases its statistics on data from the Federal Aviation Administration and other sources, also reported that during the first three days of the strike, 47 percent of Northwest's flights departed or arrived at least 15 minutes late. The data showed that 31 percent of Northwest's flights were delayed last week, before the strike began.
Rod Caborn, executive vice president for YPB&R, a travel marketing firm based in Orlando, Fla., said Northwest had created a perception that it had won. "Perception is reality," he said.
The union counters that it may just be a matter of time.
"Our morale is very high," O. V. Delle-Femine, the union's executive director, said in a telephone interview. "The reports I get every day are that Northwest's cancellations are increasing. They've spent three months training people to service five different types of planes. They don't know what they're supposed to do. It's going to be a disaster. The flying public is going to pay the price for flying Northwest."
By Wednesday night, as the strike ended its fifth day, the two sides had not yet gone back to the bargaining table, nor had they announced plans to do so.
So far, for passengers, flights seem to be operating as normal, according to Northwest passengers interviewed Wednesday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus.
"Quite honestly, I haven't really noticed a lapse of any kind since the strike began," said Jerry Blackwell, 43, a lawyer from Minneapolis, who said he flew Northwest two to three times a week. "It seems as though there have been few disruptions."
Northwest's plan to win the confidence of air travelers began well before the picket lines went up. Months before 4,430 mechanics, cleaners and other members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked off the job on Saturday, Northwest's corporate communications department began planning a public relations component to the airline's strike contingency plan.
Northwest anticipated that the union would question the credentials of the 1,200 replacement mechanics to try to convince the public that flying Northwest during the strike would not be safe. So part of the public relations strategy, devised by Northwest's senior vice president for corporate and brand communications, Mary Carroll Linder, was to emphasize the qualifications of the replacement mechanics.
Ms. Linder oversaw an effort to post strike-related questions and answers for consumers on Northwest's Web site. The site states that 65 percent of the replacement mechanics have at least 10 years of experience. Ms. Linder declined to be interviewed for this article, and a Northwest spokesman said the company would not comment on its public relations strategy.
Once the strike began, managing the message proved difficult. This became evident on Saturday afternoon when Northwest found that every delay, cancellation and mechanical problems suddenly became the subject of public scrutiny.
At the airport in Romulus that afternoon, a Northwest plane blew out four tires as it landed. Northwest scrambled to issue a statement explaining the company did not believe that the incident was related to the strike. Then a television station reported that another Northwest plane had to make an emergency landing after reporting smoke in the cabin.
On Wednesday, the airline said a flight from Minneapolis to Bozeman, Mont., developed hyrdraulic issues and had to be diverted to Billings, where it landed without incident. An airline spokesman, Todd Morgano, said it was too early to draw any conclusions about the cause.
Northwest also scrambled to respond to reports of higher-than-average delays and cancellations. The mechanics' union on Saturday began circulating a document with data on delays. Executives were unable at first to determine where the union got its numbers. After finding out the data was from the airline's internal employee Web site, executives rushed to explain that the delays seemed high because they included ones from two Northwest partners.
#13
Posted 29 August 2005 - 03:29 PM
Scalpel4
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Northwest Strikers Showing Signs of Dissent
By MICHELINE MAYNARD and JEREMY W. PETERS
DETROIT, Aug. 28 - Ten days into a strike against Northwest Airlines, signs of dissent are beginning to bubble up among mechanics' union members on picket lines at airports around the country.
In a union known for lively debate, some members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which struck Northwest on Aug. 20, are questioning the union leaders' decision to call a strike without a vote on the airline's final offer.
Other workers are voicing adamant support for the walkout. But even some of them are looking for other jobs, saying they cannot afford to be out of work.
The union's 4,430 workers at Northwest are walking picket lines without pay, since AMFA does not have a strike fund. Their medical coverage from the airline runs out on Thursday, and none is available from the union. And in some states, they have no unemployment benefits.
Northwest is using 1,900 substitute workers, including replacement mechanics, contractors and supervisors.
On Sunday, Northwest said its operations had run relatively well over the weekend, although it had canceled 15 flights because of Hurricane Katrina. On Saturday, the airline said 28 percent of its flights were delayed 15 minutes or more; as of midafternoon Sunday, about 13 percent were delayed, airline officials said.
Northwest normally encounters delays involving 20 percent to 22 percent of its flights.
The airline's last offer to the union called for $176 million in wage and benefit cuts, including the elimination of 2,000 jobs. It also would have provided for six months' severance pay and medical coverage for those laid off.
"It's absolutely ridiculous. I can't believe they didn't let us vote on it," Jeff Doerr, who has been a mechanic at Northwest's hub in Minneapolis for 15 years, said last week.
"I have 31 years of my life invested in my job," said Richard S. Paterala, a lead technician at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. In an e-mail message, he said he was "furious" that he did not get to consider the airline's offer.
But union leaders, including AMFA's executive director, O. V. Delle-Femine, have said the airline's final proposal was so unreasonable that the rank and file would surely have turned it down if they had a chance to vote on it.
On Sunday, Mr. Delle-Femine said he stood by his decision not to bring the offer to a vote. "We put out feelers on that," he said, adding that only a small minority of union members thought the offer was worth voting on. "We would have been hung if we brought it out to ratify."
Labor experts said this stance was justifiable. "No leadership will just present everything that a company offers," said Herman Benson, founder of the Association for Union Democracy, a nonprofit trade organization that advises unions.
Nor would it send workers to picket lines without their approval, and 93 percent of AMFA members at Northwest voted in favor of a strike in July. This weekend, many vowed to keep picketing as long as it took to reach an acceptable deal.
On Saturday, hundreds demonstrated in support of the union at its offices in Bloomington, Minn. In Detroit that same night, workers held a fund-raising dinner at a downtown bar. "We're still strong," said David Doyle, a mechanic at Northwest's operations in Detroit.
The father of four children, Mr. Doyle is on the picket line every day at 5 a.m., with his family's support. "The resolve is there. It's still there," he said.
Union leaders are well aware of other members' unhappiness. Late last week, AMFA Local 5 in Detroit, the site of Northwest's major international hub, posted a three-page letter on its Web site explaining in detail why the company's proposal was not submitted to members.
"We knew that the company's final, last best offer had no chance of being ratified," wrote Neil Hesselgrave, a union negotiator.
Mr. Hesselgrave told members that AMFA had countered Northwest in the final hours before the strike with a verbal offer of cuts worth $146.3 million, including a 20 percent pay cut, and the elimination of up to 1,300 jobs. In return, the union demanded 32 weeks of severance pay, along with medical and dental insurance for 12 months. But even this deal, he said, had a "slim chance" of winning ratification.
No matter how the strikers feel about the situation, some could soon be leaving the picket lines anyway. Several workers in Minneapolis and Detroit said they had begun looking for new jobs.
Matt Bailey, who has worked at Northwest for 15 years and whose last job was in the machine shop in Minneapolis, has already gone on one job interview and had set up three more, he said Friday.
Sue Dorr, who has spent eight years as an airplane cleaner in Detroit, said she began looking for work a month ago, anticipating that the union would go on strike. But, Ms. Dorr said, "I'm going to have to take two jobs just to keep my house."
The lively debate among AMFA members over the strike is not unusual at a union known for controversy.
Since its inception 40 years ago, AMFA has become known for luring members from rival unions by promising to fight wage and benefit cuts, as it did at Northwest, where it unseated the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers in 1998.
Dubbing itself a "craft union" to set it apart from industrial unions, AMFA does not belong to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. It refuses to sign confidentiality agreements that would let its leaders examine airlines' financial data, because it prides itself on sharing information with its members.
But Northwest's ability to keep operating with what it considers to be an acceptable number of delays and cancellations, coupled with the chance that members will take other jobs, has put leaders in a bind, said Mr. Benson, of the Association for Union Democracy.
"Unless they can pull off some kind of a decent compromise, the union is in very rough shape," he said.
There could be some wiggle room. In May, AMFA departed from its no-concessions stance at United Airlines, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection since 2002. For the first time in the union's history, AMFA members approved a wages-and-benefits package with $96 million in cuts. That was a unique situation, Mr. Delle-Femine said at the time, because a judge could impose the concessions if workers refused to accept them.
Another option, though far less face-saving, would be to call off the strike. That happened in 1995 at Caterpillar, after a 17-month strike by 13,000 members of the United Auto Workers union.
Caterpillar kept operating with replacement workers, managers and union members who crossed the picket line. Ultimately, the union declared that the strike was in recess, and cut off strike pay. Caterpillar hired back most but not all of the striking workers.
Such a move is not likely at Northwest, at least for now, labor experts say. In any event, the union cannot expect Northwest to proffer the terms it previously proposed, said Andrew C. Roberts, the airline's senior vice president for operations.
"We would not leave the last offer on the table," Mr. Roberts said Friday during a conference call with reporters.
Under the federal Railway Labor Act, Northwest does not have to rehire striking AMFA members if it has hired permanent replacements, a step the airline said it was considering.
For their part, workers say they know some job losses are inevitable. But Paul Bute, who spent nearly 19 years as a mechanic in Minneapolis before the strike, said a vote by members would uphold the union's democratic philosophy, no matter how distasteful the proposal.
"You could vote to get replaced, and some severance and unemployment, and some of your friends would get to stay," he said last week.
Northwest has set up a toll-free number for workers to call if they want to cross the picket line and reclaim their jobs. AMFA says none of its members have done so; Mr. Roberts says two or three have.
Still, Mr. Bute and other workers draw the line at that idea. No matter their feelings about union leaders, principles are still at stake, they said.
"You try to teach your kids something," Mr. Bute said. "There's right and wrong, and in the face of a disaster, there's still right and wrong."
But of the strike, he said, "It hurts."
By MICHELINE MAYNARD and JEREMY W. PETERS
DETROIT, Aug. 28 - Ten days into a strike against Northwest Airlines, signs of dissent are beginning to bubble up among mechanics' union members on picket lines at airports around the country.
In a union known for lively debate, some members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association, which struck Northwest on Aug. 20, are questioning the union leaders' decision to call a strike without a vote on the airline's final offer.
Other workers are voicing adamant support for the walkout. But even some of them are looking for other jobs, saying they cannot afford to be out of work.
The union's 4,430 workers at Northwest are walking picket lines without pay, since AMFA does not have a strike fund. Their medical coverage from the airline runs out on Thursday, and none is available from the union. And in some states, they have no unemployment benefits.
Northwest is using 1,900 substitute workers, including replacement mechanics, contractors and supervisors.
On Sunday, Northwest said its operations had run relatively well over the weekend, although it had canceled 15 flights because of Hurricane Katrina. On Saturday, the airline said 28 percent of its flights were delayed 15 minutes or more; as of midafternoon Sunday, about 13 percent were delayed, airline officials said.
Northwest normally encounters delays involving 20 percent to 22 percent of its flights.
The airline's last offer to the union called for $176 million in wage and benefit cuts, including the elimination of 2,000 jobs. It also would have provided for six months' severance pay and medical coverage for those laid off.
"It's absolutely ridiculous. I can't believe they didn't let us vote on it," Jeff Doerr, who has been a mechanic at Northwest's hub in Minneapolis for 15 years, said last week.
"I have 31 years of my life invested in my job," said Richard S. Paterala, a lead technician at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. In an e-mail message, he said he was "furious" that he did not get to consider the airline's offer.
But union leaders, including AMFA's executive director, O. V. Delle-Femine, have said the airline's final proposal was so unreasonable that the rank and file would surely have turned it down if they had a chance to vote on it.
On Sunday, Mr. Delle-Femine said he stood by his decision not to bring the offer to a vote. "We put out feelers on that," he said, adding that only a small minority of union members thought the offer was worth voting on. "We would have been hung if we brought it out to ratify."
Labor experts said this stance was justifiable. "No leadership will just present everything that a company offers," said Herman Benson, founder of the Association for Union Democracy, a nonprofit trade organization that advises unions.
Nor would it send workers to picket lines without their approval, and 93 percent of AMFA members at Northwest voted in favor of a strike in July. This weekend, many vowed to keep picketing as long as it took to reach an acceptable deal.
On Saturday, hundreds demonstrated in support of the union at its offices in Bloomington, Minn. In Detroit that same night, workers held a fund-raising dinner at a downtown bar. "We're still strong," said David Doyle, a mechanic at Northwest's operations in Detroit.
The father of four children, Mr. Doyle is on the picket line every day at 5 a.m., with his family's support. "The resolve is there. It's still there," he said.
Union leaders are well aware of other members' unhappiness. Late last week, AMFA Local 5 in Detroit, the site of Northwest's major international hub, posted a three-page letter on its Web site explaining in detail why the company's proposal was not submitted to members.
"We knew that the company's final, last best offer had no chance of being ratified," wrote Neil Hesselgrave, a union negotiator.
Mr. Hesselgrave told members that AMFA had countered Northwest in the final hours before the strike with a verbal offer of cuts worth $146.3 million, including a 20 percent pay cut, and the elimination of up to 1,300 jobs. In return, the union demanded 32 weeks of severance pay, along with medical and dental insurance for 12 months. But even this deal, he said, had a "slim chance" of winning ratification.
No matter how the strikers feel about the situation, some could soon be leaving the picket lines anyway. Several workers in Minneapolis and Detroit said they had begun looking for new jobs.
Matt Bailey, who has worked at Northwest for 15 years and whose last job was in the machine shop in Minneapolis, has already gone on one job interview and had set up three more, he said Friday.
Sue Dorr, who has spent eight years as an airplane cleaner in Detroit, said she began looking for work a month ago, anticipating that the union would go on strike. But, Ms. Dorr said, "I'm going to have to take two jobs just to keep my house."
The lively debate among AMFA members over the strike is not unusual at a union known for controversy.
Since its inception 40 years ago, AMFA has become known for luring members from rival unions by promising to fight wage and benefit cuts, as it did at Northwest, where it unseated the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace workers in 1998.
Dubbing itself a "craft union" to set it apart from industrial unions, AMFA does not belong to the A.F.L.-C.I.O. It refuses to sign confidentiality agreements that would let its leaders examine airlines' financial data, because it prides itself on sharing information with its members.
But Northwest's ability to keep operating with what it considers to be an acceptable number of delays and cancellations, coupled with the chance that members will take other jobs, has put leaders in a bind, said Mr. Benson, of the Association for Union Democracy.
"Unless they can pull off some kind of a decent compromise, the union is in very rough shape," he said.
There could be some wiggle room. In May, AMFA departed from its no-concessions stance at United Airlines, which has been operating under bankruptcy protection since 2002. For the first time in the union's history, AMFA members approved a wages-and-benefits package with $96 million in cuts. That was a unique situation, Mr. Delle-Femine said at the time, because a judge could impose the concessions if workers refused to accept them.
Another option, though far less face-saving, would be to call off the strike. That happened in 1995 at Caterpillar, after a 17-month strike by 13,000 members of the United Auto Workers union.
Caterpillar kept operating with replacement workers, managers and union members who crossed the picket line. Ultimately, the union declared that the strike was in recess, and cut off strike pay. Caterpillar hired back most but not all of the striking workers.
Such a move is not likely at Northwest, at least for now, labor experts say. In any event, the union cannot expect Northwest to proffer the terms it previously proposed, said Andrew C. Roberts, the airline's senior vice president for operations.
"We would not leave the last offer on the table," Mr. Roberts said Friday during a conference call with reporters.
Under the federal Railway Labor Act, Northwest does not have to rehire striking AMFA members if it has hired permanent replacements, a step the airline said it was considering.
For their part, workers say they know some job losses are inevitable. But Paul Bute, who spent nearly 19 years as a mechanic in Minneapolis before the strike, said a vote by members would uphold the union's democratic philosophy, no matter how distasteful the proposal.
"You could vote to get replaced, and some severance and unemployment, and some of your friends would get to stay," he said last week.
Northwest has set up a toll-free number for workers to call if they want to cross the picket line and reclaim their jobs. AMFA says none of its members have done so; Mr. Roberts says two or three have.
Still, Mr. Bute and other workers draw the line at that idea. No matter their feelings about union leaders, principles are still at stake, they said.
"You try to teach your kids something," Mr. Bute said. "There's right and wrong, and in the face of a disaster, there's still right and wrong."
But of the strike, he said, "It hurts."
#14
Posted 29 August 2005 - 07:55 PM
airline55
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A national neocon network? FLAG
First of all What do you use as a judge? NBC?
And, yes, Many FOX NEWS CHANNEL's reporters are to the right of the center, but the local stations are pretty fair.
And, thirdly, even if they are right wing, it still fails to balance the national media.
First of all What do you use as a judge? NBC?
And, yes, Many FOX NEWS CHANNEL's reporters are to the right of the center, but the local stations are pretty fair.
And, thirdly, even if they are right wing, it still fails to balance the national media.
#15
Posted 30 August 2005 - 06:47 PM
Scalpel4
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WOW! A LITTLE right of center??? Looks like I peeved off the local Bush cheerleader. Let's clarify one thing many in your camp do not understand, just because I dislike one biased source does not mean I am for another biased source. I'm no fan of 90% of the news coverage in this country because there's always an agenda behind the reporting nowadays, but the fact remains Fox news is so far to the right it's almost unwatchable. and NO, I'm not a democrat or a liberal either, so you can hold off on the traditional GOP tactic of name calling. Need proof of FOX's leanings, then I'll site some examples:
It was non-stop hurricane coverage on Hannity & Colmes last night. But that didn't stop Sean Hannity from finding a way to make George Bush look good. In the middle of an interview with Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, who happens to be former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Hannity asked, "What can you tell us about the president?"
Bo Dietl, a former New York City police detective turned vigilante, was a guest last Saturday on one of Fox's Saturday morning "business news" programs, Cavuto on Business. Dietl was on to discuss radical cleric Pat Robertson's suggestion that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Substitute host Dagen McDowell opened the segment wondering, "[W]hy fight a war that will cost billions of dollars when you can just kill the dictator ... does Pat Robertson have a point?"
John Loftus, Fox News Contributor, carelessly gave the address of an unsuspecting family because he thought a terrorist lived at their address. He was wrong and the family has been tortured and terrorized since his irresponsible statement. Chrish reported this story and at that time the family was waiting for an apology from Fox News. This morning 8/27/05, CNN reported that Fox had fired Loftus and issued a written apology to the family who have gone through hell.
Now this is my favorite. Apparently a PIPA study found proof that most of Fox news viewers are SO misinformed they still attribute terrorism and Al Quaeda as to the main cause for invading Iraq, not the allegation of WMD.
http://www.pipa.org/...02_03_Press.pdf
Now, this thread is not the place to debate this, so if you want to carry on this conversation, start ANOTHER thread in the WHATEVER forum, don't discuss it any further here.
[Edited on 8/30/2005 by Scalpel4]
It was non-stop hurricane coverage on Hannity & Colmes last night. But that didn't stop Sean Hannity from finding a way to make George Bush look good. In the middle of an interview with Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, who happens to be former chairman of the Republican National Committee, Hannity asked, "What can you tell us about the president?"
Bo Dietl, a former New York City police detective turned vigilante, was a guest last Saturday on one of Fox's Saturday morning "business news" programs, Cavuto on Business. Dietl was on to discuss radical cleric Pat Robertson's suggestion that the United States assassinate President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Substitute host Dagen McDowell opened the segment wondering, "[W]hy fight a war that will cost billions of dollars when you can just kill the dictator ... does Pat Robertson have a point?"
John Loftus, Fox News Contributor, carelessly gave the address of an unsuspecting family because he thought a terrorist lived at their address. He was wrong and the family has been tortured and terrorized since his irresponsible statement. Chrish reported this story and at that time the family was waiting for an apology from Fox News. This morning 8/27/05, CNN reported that Fox had fired Loftus and issued a written apology to the family who have gone through hell.
Now this is my favorite. Apparently a PIPA study found proof that most of Fox news viewers are SO misinformed they still attribute terrorism and Al Quaeda as to the main cause for invading Iraq, not the allegation of WMD.
http://www.pipa.org/...02_03_Press.pdf
Now, this thread is not the place to debate this, so if you want to carry on this conversation, start ANOTHER thread in the WHATEVER forum, don't discuss it any further here.
[Edited on 8/30/2005 by Scalpel4]
#16
Posted 30 August 2005 - 07:49 PM
airline55
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Don't start things if you don't want for them to be talked about.
#17
Posted 30 August 2005 - 08:35 PM
doug_Or
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Originally posted by airline55
Don't start things if you don't want for them to be talked about.
He never said he didn't want to talk about it, he suggeted continuing the disccusion in a more appropriate forum. If you would like to debate this further you are welcome to do so, but any more posts not about Northwest in this thread will be deleted or moved.
#18
Posted 30 August 2005 - 08:39 PM
Scalpel4
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YEAH!!!
#19
Posted 15 September 2005 - 03:17 PM
Scalpel4
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Letter to NWA WorldPerks members. I'm glad they sent this, because I have a large bank of miles with them.
As you may already have heard in media reports, Northwest Airlines? has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The bankruptcy process will enable Northwest to continue its transformation into a new-era carrier in keeping with the permanent changes that have affected the airline industry, such as rising labor costs and a doubling of fuel prices over the past two years.
Because we value your business and proven loyalty, I am writing to assure you that there will be no impact on the WorldPerks? program as a result of the filing. Frequent flyer mileage accrual, redemption, and Elite benefits will remain unchanged. Members will continue to earn and redeem miles according to the current WorldPerks program guidelines.
The bankruptcy filing will not impact Northwest?s day-to-day business operations. We remain committed to serving customers, honoring tickets, flying a competitive schedule safely and reliably, maintaining our WorldClubs? lounge program, and all other programs and services.
All bookings will be honored, and ticketing policies remain unchanged. Our existing marketing relationships with other airlines remain in place.
The decision to file for bankruptcy protection is not related to the current strike by members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Our operation continues to run well and we have experienced no adverse impact on our operational performance as a result of the work stoppage.
Customers can continue to book travel on Northwest Airlines with confidence. Although bankruptcy is never a first choice option, it does provide the most prudent means for a restructuring that will ensure the transformation of Northwest into a new-era carrier that is able to compete in the near term and well into the future.
Thank you for your continued support of Northwest Airlines. For more information about Northwest?s transformation, please visit nwa.com?.
We look forward to continuing to earn your business by providing the outstanding service you deserve.
Sincerely,
Doug Steenland
President and CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.
As you may already have heard in media reports, Northwest Airlines? has voluntarily filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The bankruptcy process will enable Northwest to continue its transformation into a new-era carrier in keeping with the permanent changes that have affected the airline industry, such as rising labor costs and a doubling of fuel prices over the past two years.
Because we value your business and proven loyalty, I am writing to assure you that there will be no impact on the WorldPerks? program as a result of the filing. Frequent flyer mileage accrual, redemption, and Elite benefits will remain unchanged. Members will continue to earn and redeem miles according to the current WorldPerks program guidelines.
The bankruptcy filing will not impact Northwest?s day-to-day business operations. We remain committed to serving customers, honoring tickets, flying a competitive schedule safely and reliably, maintaining our WorldClubs? lounge program, and all other programs and services.
All bookings will be honored, and ticketing policies remain unchanged. Our existing marketing relationships with other airlines remain in place.
The decision to file for bankruptcy protection is not related to the current strike by members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Our operation continues to run well and we have experienced no adverse impact on our operational performance as a result of the work stoppage.
Customers can continue to book travel on Northwest Airlines with confidence. Although bankruptcy is never a first choice option, it does provide the most prudent means for a restructuring that will ensure the transformation of Northwest into a new-era carrier that is able to compete in the near term and well into the future.
Thank you for your continued support of Northwest Airlines. For more information about Northwest?s transformation, please visit nwa.com?.
We look forward to continuing to earn your business by providing the outstanding service you deserve.
Sincerely,
Doug Steenland
President and CEO
Northwest Airlines, Inc.
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