Pilot Leaders OK Contract With Northwest

ST. PAUL, Minn. —  Leaders of striking pilots at Northwest Airlines ratified a new four-year contract Saturday, ending a walkout that has grounded planes since Aug. 28.

“Northwest pilots may now return to work,” said Steve Zoller, chairman of the 17-member pilots’ executive council, which ratified the agreement that gives pilots a 12% pay increase over the life of the contract.

The executive council could have deferred a decision to a rank-and-file vote of Northwest’s 6,200 pilots but did not. They approved a tentative agreement that had been announced Thursday.

Northwest immediately began contacting all 31,000 employees who had been temporarily laid off, and officials said it should have one-fourth of its schedule in operation by Wednesday.

The airline expects to be at full speed by Sept. 21. Northwest has canceled all flights through Tuesday and all European and Asian flights through Wednesday.

Members of the Air Line Pilots Assn. struck the Eagan-based carrier on Aug. 28 after two years of attempts to agree to a new contract. It was the longest strike against a U.S. airline since 1989, when a machinists’ strike led to the collapse of Eastern Airlines.

In addition to the salary increase, pilots won a phasing out of a two-tier wage scale that pays new hires at a lower rate, Zoller said. They also received stock options and profit sharing, he said.

David Welch, a Northwest pilot, said: “We were successful because we felt our cause was just. Our pilots’ group was unified, and we were able to convince management we wouldn’t back down.”

Northwest still faces open contracts with five other unions and said Friday that the labor disputes would lead to the first money-losing quarter since 1993.

“I want to remind Northwest management that there are five other unions at Northwest, and the job isn’t done until all of us have new contracts,” Zoller said.

Tim Tessier, an electronics mechanic and member of the International Assn. of Machinists, was eager to see what was in the contract. The machinists’ union has asked the National Mediation Board to declare an impasse in its negotiations with the airline and has already authorized a strike.

“The pilots have laid the groundwork now, I imagine,” Tessier said.

Northwest is the nation’s fourth-largest airline in terms of revenue and sixth-largest in number of passengers carried each year.