The labor unrest doesn't just rest on the wings of Northwest. When the airline's pilots went on strike for 15 days in 1998, vacations, business and other travel plans had to be scrapped. I would have to drive to New York and stay there until the planes started flying again. It would effect my business. Meanwhile, as the public makes travel plans, they worry about whether their flight will ever leave the ground.
People are worried about it.
I suspect it's because the airline industry is so heavily organized by the unions. We're all asking ourselves if there is a better system of negotiations we can go to. Labor negotiations for the airline industry fall under the National Railroad Labor Act, a 1926 law designed to prevent the interruption of interstate commerce. In the case of the Northwest mechanics, the process has dragged on, partly because the membership rejected a tentative agreement in 1998, threw out their union, voted in another bargaining unit and began the process all over again. In the case of AMFA and Northwest, they have acknowledged they aren't looking for an industry-leading contract.