EAGEN, Minn., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Northwest Airlines kept flying its full schedule Saturday as other unions failed to support a strike by mechanics.
More than 4,400 members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association walked out at 12:01 a.m. EDT after the union and the airline failed to agree to a pay cut. Northwest brought in 1,500 temporary mechanics hired and trained in the past few months as a strike loomed, the New York Times reports.
Northwest wanted to cut the mechanics' pay by 26 percent on top of benefit cuts. Union negotiators said they would accept no more than a 16 percent cut.
The company is facing a financial crisis and is moving to cut costs in order to restructure.
Northwest trained 1,100 flight attendants in anticipation of a solidarity strike by their union members. Neither the flight attendants nor the pilots union struck though, saying it wasn't in their best interest.
"This strike may be of historic importance," Gary Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., told the Times. "Here members of a labor union are on strike to save their jobs, and the rest of the labor movement refuses to help it. So much for solidarity."
