It is rumored that 60 percent of ramp service workers and 70 to 75 percent of ticket agents, reservationists and clerical workers voted for the new contract. At ratification meetings the IAM threatened workers that a rejection of the contract would lead to another year of negotiations before a new contract could be reached. Neither the company nor the union revealed details of the agreement. Northwest continues to negotiate with 11,000 flight attendants represented by the Teamsters union. On Saturday nine flight attendants attempted to deliver petitions signed by 8,000 union members to company negotiators during a bargaining session.
Negotiators have yet to resolve pay, pension or job protection issues.
Flight attendants are also demanding health coverage for domestic partners of gay and lesbian workers. RMI to resume strikebreaking operation at Ohio plant RMI Titanium Corporation announced February 19 that it will soon begin to replace striking members of the United Steelworkers union after the lifting of a weeklong court order. The order limited the number of production workers that RMI could use in running its operations. It also served to reduce the number of strikers allowed to picket the plant. Bus drivers strike Minnesota school district Negotiators for 34 striking school bus drivers and the Thief River Falls school district in northwestern Minnesota met over the weekend to consider new terms.