Rut ro.
The Northwest Airlines’ flight attendants have voted down the latest tentative agreement that was negotiated between its new union representative, AFA-CWA, and the company.
The vote was 2637 for and 3266 against.
All you good airline industry watchers know what this means. The bankruptcy court handling the Northwest bankruptcy gave the airline the right to impose new terms on the flight attendants in June. But both sides continued to negotiate on another tentative agreement, and after the flight attendants voted to change union representation.
The company said today it is moving forward with plans to implement contract terms that go back to the March 1 tentative agreement with the PFAA that was not approved.
AFA, for its part, says on its website today that it will attempt to go back to the negotiating table. In the meantime, it also says it is “preparing for CHAOS.”
CHAOS is the acronym for “Create Havoc Around Our System,” the union’s method of using targeted unannounced work actions. AFA also could call for an all-out strike.
Stay tuned.
What hasn’t been pointed out much in the press that about 4000 NW F/As didn’t even bother to vote, and out of the 60% or so that did the T/A only failed by 600 votes.
That leads me to believe there isn’t a whole lot of strength among the F/As to conduct any signficant job action.
Ron Henning