Northwest Remains Grounded
Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson and other elected officials are calling on President Clinton to intervene in the weeklong strike by pilots against Northwest Airlines, Correspondent Pat Kessler of CBS station WCCO-TV in Minneapolis reports.
With economic losses mounting, a visibly annoyed Carlson asked Mr. Clinton Thursday to appoint a presidential emergency board to settle the labor dispute.
With hundreds of Northwest planes on the ground and thousands of airline workers laid off, Carlson said the state could sit by no longer. The walkout over issues of job security and pay has led Northwest to lay off about 27,700 of its 50,000 employees.
President Clinton rebuffed the requests from governors and congressmen to halt the weeklong strike by pilots.
"He feels the best way to approach this is to keep the pressure on the parties to reach a settlement, and that is what we intend to do," White House spokesman Barry Toiv said.
Toiv said Mr. Clinton, who was in Northern Ireland, received an update on the walkout. The White House continues to encourage both sides to return to bargaining, he said.
About 6,200 pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, struck St. Paul-based Northwest just after midnight Saturday over wages and job security. The strike is expected to hamper travel in parts of the country during the busy Labor Day weekend.
"The question of intervention is not a matter of 'if.' It is always a matter of 'when.' And I would argue that the 'when' is now," Carlson said.
The strike's vast economic impact is prompting calls for intervention from governors in six states, including the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, and Tennessee. But the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Aviation Committee, Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., said intervention is not needed and that progress is possible if the two sides meet.
"I'm convinced that if they do, that they can resolve this matter in a day. It isn't going to take weeks or months or a presidential emergency board," Oberstar said.
But neither the pilots nor airline management is signaling any movement toward a settlement.
Jon Austin, a Northwest Airlines spokesman, said, "We want our pilots to negotiate on the subject of pay. For two years, they haven't done that. Until they do, I don't see how anything's going to settle this."
Paul Omodt, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Union, said, "We think Northwest management has forced this strike on purpose to try to get the federal government to try to bail them out and negotiate a labor contract for them. We think that's wrong. We think that Northwest management should get back to the table and negotiate."
The Minnesota governor said he discussed presidential intervention in a phone conversation with Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater. He said he'll make a formal request when Mr. Clinton returns Sunday from his overseas trip.
The strike is ffecting about 1,700 Northwest flights and 150,000 passengers a day.
The two sides, which will meet with a mediator in Chicago on Saturday to discuss whether enough flexibility exists in their positions to warrant further talks, continued to stand their ground.
Meanwhile, two feeder airlines that shut down because of the Northwest strike said Thursday it was impossible to comply with a U.S. Transportation Department order that they resume service to 17 small towns in 11 states in the Midwest and South. The affected cities have no other air service.
"It would be economically disastrous. Eighty percent of our traffic connects to Northwest Airlines," said Mesaba Airlines spokesman Warren Wilkinson.
Philip Trenary, president and chief executive of Express Airlines I, said it would take several months to develop capabilities to handle sales, ticketing, reservations, schedule and tariff filings and other services normally provided by Northwest.