The looming mechanics strike at Northwest Airlines, which is looking like a virtual certainty tonight, is dominating the news around here. Northwest is a major economic player in the Twin Cities and the vast majority of flights from here are on Northwest planes. I’m not sure how my own flight plans will be affected if there is a strike. Northwest is vowing to continue regular operations through a strike. But if lots of flights get canceled or delayed, that might force the federal government to intervene. I’m reluctant to make arrangements with another airline simply because Northwest has always been accommodating to my needs. Perhaps Northwest has always planned on using a strike to bust the union, which is unfortunate. The airline unions have spent decades ensuring good pay and benefits for their members, but 9/11 revealed the shaky underpinnings of the airline economies. And now the unions are forced to accept deep wage cuts, job losses, or both. No matter what the unions do, they lose. Organized labor is in such a fractured state already; an unsuccessful mechanics strike will only make matters worse.
