NWA: Big business as usual

BY LYDIA HOWELL

Other airlines declaring bankruptcy since 2002 have pulled off similar scams, citing the post-9/11 downturn.

Business reporters are all aflutter as Northwest Airlines (NWA) emerges from bankruptcy today, with stock prices going up and predicted 2007 profits of $794 million. There's little or no mention of the VIP winners and little fish losers--or what this means as one more way corporations enrich themselves by robbing working Americans.
NWA pilots and flight attendants (with national union leaders and two elected officials) rallied with a Macy's Thanksgiving parade-style giant inflated rat at the Minnesota State Capitol yesterday to expose what should be seen as legalized corporate theft.

As Pat Friend, president of the Association of Flight Attendants told the couple hundred workers, "Airline executives used the shelter of bankruptcy to extract further concessions from airline employees in an unparalleled show of unscrupulousness and greed. Our airlines were led into the no-man's land of bankruptcy where they were able to cast aside the laws that protect our contracts and further decimate good jobs in our industry. Complicit federal regulators and the U.S. bankruptcy courts closed their eyes to the injustices wrought by the wealthy and powerful corporate executives."

Flight attendants and pilots will lose 40 percent to 50 percent of their pay. Imagine what losing half your pay would do to your budget.

For the flight attendants, this will mean making a salary of $15,000 to $30,000. Salaries for pilots vary considerably, depending on years of experience, the size of plane they fly and other factors, but internet research shows pay from $60,000 for small-plane pilots to $240,000 for the most experienced large plane pilots. While that might sound like some pilots can absorb the cuts, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) president John Prader told the rally that there are pilots who've sold their homes and yanked their kids out of college. They will be flying longer hours, with fewer sick days and higher health care costs. Ditto for flight attendants; their pensions will also be cut.

The $400 million cuts to those who perform the actual work of flying and providing services at NWA will be given to top executives in "bonuses," stock and pensions. Minnesota State Senator Jim Carlson (DFL-Eagan) ran down the mind-boggling numbers:

CEO Doug Steenland gets annual pay of $1.8 million, a bonus of $26.5 million, stock worth $5.8 million and after 15 ½ years with NWA is guaranteed $947,417 in an annual pension. Outgoing chair Gary Wilson got $2 million as he left the company, along with millions for his stock options. Other executives made out well with their pensions--EVP Information Phillip Haan gets $555,258 (13.8 years of service); EVP Marketing Tim Griffin gets $559,457 (11.6 years of service); EVP Operations, Andrew Roberts gets $413,968 (7.4 years of service).

Other airlines declaring bankruptcy since 2002 have pulled off similar scams, citing the post-9/11 downturn. Remember the roughly $5 billion of taxpayers money the airlines got within weeks of the attacks? I wonder how much of that went into executive pockets. NWA mechanics got hit with multiple pay cuts and layoffs first, as their jobs were shipped off to China (May 31, 2004 Washington Post article on outsourcing mechanics' jobs).

There were plenty of workers who had little sympathy for the airline mechanics, in effect, saying, "They make $25 or $35 an hour--a lot more than I do! Why should I stand with them?" Probably many of those same folks won't feel much empathy for the pilots and flight attendants either. This is just the latest example of corporate divide and conquer. Besides relocating plants or services to Third World countries with sweatshop wages and no benefits and making unions illegal, hiring undocumented workers or importing H1 visa workers, now corporations can use bankruptcy as a way to discard labor contracts. Every union representative I asked agreed that airlines "declaring bankruptcy" was just a way to rip off the workers. The executive bonuses confirm that.

It's overdue for the 75 percent of American workers making $50,000 or less (often a hell of a lot less!), to stop identifying with folks like Donald Trump, who makes $1 million per show for The Apprentice and has a net worth of $1.9 billion--especially since "You're fired!" are the words workers most fear.

Walking the mechanics' picket line a couple of years ago, I remember thinking that the flight attendants and pilots would certainly be next on the chopping block. Airline industry unions' failure to unify their struggles and go out on strike together means they got picked off by the executives. This should be a sobering lesson for all workers who want a fighting chance against these corporate rats. An injury to one really is an injury to all.

More information on airline industry unions:
www.nwaalpa.org and www.nwaafa.org.

Latest statistics on Americans' wages:

www.coeinc.org/financialstatistics.htm