Breaking: Northwest Pilots Strike May Be Imminent

Last Update (3/3): Northwest and Pilots Reach Pay-Cut Deal

Update (3/1):  Northwest Flight Attendants reach deal; pilots still talking.

From Yahoo! News (through the AP):

The pilots union at Northwest Airlines Corp. said Tuesday that its members have authorized a strike if the carrier imposes its threatened pay-cut and work-rule changes.

More than 92 percent of pilots voted in favor of authorizing a strike, said Wade Blaufuss, spokesman for the Northwest branch of the Air Line Pilots Association.

He said more than 90 percent of Northwest's 4,851 eligible pilots voted.

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The vote authorizes union leaders to call a strike, but doesn't guarantee that they will. The union has said it wouldn't strike unless Northwest imposes pay-cut and work rule changes. Wednesday is the earliest that could happen. That's the day that New York bankruptcy judge Allan Gropper is set to rule on the airline's request to reject its union contracts with pilots and flight attendants.

The rest of the story is here.

Needless to say, a pilots' strike would be devastating and yet it is unclear whether the airline can successfully emerge from bankruptcy without additional concessions from its pilots.

Thing are certainly at their bleakest point for the Red Triangle Airline and for air travelers at NW hub cities like Memphis, Detroit, and Minneapolis.

PS