Flight International online news 08:30 GMT: Northwest Airlines has proposed a restructuring plan that will outsource almost 60% of its flight attendants.
The plan is part of the newly bankrupt carrier’s revised cost cutting programme, which calls for $1.4 billion in annual wage and rule changes in addition to unspecified savings from changes to its pension contributions.
Details of the outsourcing programme were given to Flight International's sister publication Air Transport Intelligence by the carrier’s flight attendant union, the Professional Flight Attendants Association.
According to the PFAA, Northwest approached its flight attendants several weeks ago with a concessions programme valued at $143 million a year, excluding the effects of any pension deal. Among several options to achieve these savings proffered by the carrier was an outsourcing program that would cut staff jobs on most international services and all domestic services on aircraft with less than 100 seats.
The PFAA estimates this would cut between 5,400 and 5,600, or 55.5% to 57.5%, from its almost 9,800 membership.
Similar cuts are currently planned for the carrier’s Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association-represented workforce, which has chosen to strike against the plan.
Northwest’s flight attendant leaders say it is too early to talk about strike action, but they do reject any outsourcing. “We are absolutely opposed to any changes to work rules, routes or our retirement plans,” says a PFAA spokesman. “These are not for sale.”
The airline will not talk about the specifics of its restructuring plan. “We’ve gone to each of our unions with the amount needed from their employees for labour cost restructuring. There are a menu of ways that those amounts can be reached, and those menus can be developed in negotiations,” says a spokesman.
DARREN SHANNON/WASHINGTON DC
Source: Flight International
