Northwest Airlines Flight Attendants Reject Contract

UPDATE: This just in from the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA-CWA). Effective Aug. 15 at 9:01 p.m., flight attendants could engage in CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System), AFA-CWA’s tradmarked strategy of targeted work actions using random, unnanounced strikes.  

Members say any unilateral change to a collective bargaining agreement under the Railway Labor Act is prohibited and so triggers the right to strike.

Read more here and below.

Northwest Airlines flight attendants, represented by AFA-CWA, rejected their second tentative agreement with the company July 31. A majority of flight attendants voted to reject the agreement by a count of 3,266 to 2,637.

Says Mollie Reiley, AFA-CWA interim Master Executive Council president:

Our members have spoken: These drastic cuts to our pay, benefits and work rules are simply unacceptable. While we will attempt to go back to the negotiating table with the company, we continue preparing for CHAOS.

AFA-CWA reached the tentative agreement 10 days after being elected as the new collective bargaining representative for Northwest flight attendants. Prior to AFA-CWA entering negotiations, a federal bankruptcy judge ordered that cost savings must equal at least $195 million for five years. The court also established the terms of the previous tentative agreement as the starting point for the latest round of bargaining.

Says Reiley:

Our members refuse to watch more than 40 percent of our wages and benefits get funneled into company profits and executive bonuses. It is simply not necessary and will not be tolerated.

More than 55,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines came together to form AFA-CWA, the world’s largest flight attendant union. AFA is part of the 700,000-member CWA.

Read more here.

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