AFA-CWA, Northwest Reach Tentative Pact

AFA-CWA and Northwest Airlines reached a tentative agreement covering 8,000 flight attendants. The ratification vote for AFA-CWA members will begin on May 7 with voting to end on May 29, and roadshows -- AFA-CWA's contract explanation meetings -- will be held over the next several weeks. 

Northwest flight attendants had voted down two previous tentative agreements.  In June 2006, a federal bankruptcy judge gave Northwest management permission to throw out over 50 years of collective bargaining and imposed wage and benefit cuts. These cuts increased work hours while cutting wages, benefits and working conditions for flight attendants.

The proposed settlement protects a $182 million bankruptcy equity claim and severance option that, if ratified by flight attendants, could provide as much as $18,000 in payments per flight attendant, AFA-CWA said.

Jay Hong, AFA-CWA President at Northwest, said the union will continue the fight to restore members' pay, benefits and working conditions. "We will never rest until we have rebuilt what this bankruptcy has destroyed," he said. The tentative agreement does give members the opportunity to vote on whether to take the $182 million bankruptcy claim and other improvements before the claim is lost when the airline exits bankruptcy, he noted.