Bankruptcy Court Judge Grants Northwest Airlines' Motion to Reject its Contract With Flight Attendants

EAGAN, Minn., June 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Northwest Airlines said today that Judge Allan L. Gropper of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York granted the airline's motion to reject its contract with flight attendants, represented by the Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA).

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The court stayed implementation of the order for 14 days so that additional negotiations may take place. If no agreement is reached during that 14-day period, the company is authorized to implement the terms of the tentative agreement that it reached with the PFAA on March 1, which the flight attendants failed to ratify.

"Northwest bargained in good faith with representatives of PFAA. In March, we reached a consensual agreement with the union's negotiating committee whom the flight attendants chose to represent them. The tentative agreement was the result of extensive negotiations involving substantial compromise on the part of Northwest Airlines and PFAA's own negotiating committee," said Mike Becker, senior vice president of human resources and labor relations.

Northwest has reached agreements on permanent wage and benefit reduction agreements with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), Aircraft Technical Support Association (ATSA), the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU), and the Northwest Airlines Meteorologists Association (NAMA). Two rounds of salaried and management employee pay and benefit cuts have also been instituted and the needed aircraft maintenance employee labor cost savings have been achieved.

Northwest Airlines is the world's fifth largest airline with hubs at Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Memphis, Tokyo and Amsterdam, and approximately 1,200 daily departures. Northwest is a member of SkyTeam, an airline alliance that offers customers one of the world's most extensive global networks. Northwest and its travel partners serve more than 900 cities in excess of 160 countries on six continents.