Global Reset

I’ve previously commented on Wal-Mart’s closing of a unionized store and this recent action from Northwest demands similar cheers:

Northwest’s strike toll: 1,200 jobs gone

About 1,200 union jobs have been eliminated since mechanics and plane cleaners walked off the job three days ago, Northwest Airlines said Monday, as it uses the strike to impose many of the cost-cutting changes it demanded during months of contract negotiations.

That’s only 1,200 of the 4,400 strikers, so there is bound to be some major backlash from the surviving strikers. I hope that Northwest can survive it.

Before the strike, Northwest told AMFA it must reduce the cost of cleaning and fixing its planes by $176 million a year. Hiring outside contractors to do much more of that work is a big part of the airline’s plan to do that. A 25% pay cut for all AMFA workers is another.

I can understand these guys don’t like the idea of a pay cut. But what I don’t understand is where the union organizers (presumably smart people, though I may presume to much) think the money is going to come from if Northwest doesn’t make that cut. The airline industry is sinking and, if individual airliners want to survive, they’re going to have to put control of the company back in the hands of the CEO’s.