News Comes As ALPA, PFAA Agree To Concessions

It's a case of one step forward, two steps back for Northwest Airlines: just as the carrier announced Monday it had reached deals with two unions key to the carrier's plan to put aside its labor woes, the remaining holdout reported things are worse than ever when it comes to the carrier's safety and maintenance record since the union went on strike in mid-August.

The Air Line Pilots Association reached an agreement with Northwest, taking temporary pay cuts and other cost reductions to the tune of $215 million a year, while the Professional Flight Attendants Association agreed to cuts of $117 million.

Northwest can't celebrate just yet, though, as the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) said Monday two union members who crossed picket lines during the current strike, have left the company again over maintenance safety issues -- and they're being quite vocal about it.

"Two former strikebreakers who quit their jobs at Northwest just within the past week told me that maintenance practices there are still in such disarray that the situation raises serious safety concerns they were unwilling to tolerate," said AMFA National Safety and Standards Director John Glynn.

"Soon after they decided to cross the picket lines and return to work, they were assigned to find tools to build up carbon seals on gearboxes and were alarmed by what they saw," Glynn told the Memphis Business Journal.

"There were incompletely installed engines in the shop with parts hanging from them, which in itself is not alarming, but there was no paperwork anywhere to document what was supposed to be happening with the engines... [a manager] said some were going onto live aircraft and others back to the leasing company for major overhaul or disposal, but there was no paperwork to identify which was which," said Glynn. "In addition to that, the right tools for the jobs they were assigned were unavailable."

Glynn said he alerted the FAA inspector to the situation. He also said a replacement worker had expressed concern to one of the strikebreakers about the lack of proper tools and equipment.

The US Department of Transportation is conducting an investigation into the maintenance issues and concerns, based on allegations that started at nearly the moment the strike began on August 20. As was reported in Aero-News, several incidences of concern have been noted by FAA inspectors.

The FAA is also conducting an investigation of their own based the allegations.

"I wish the FAA also ranked airlines on maintenance safety, so the public would know what's been going on," Glynn said.

FMI: www.amfanatl.org, www.alpa.org, www.nwa.com