Northwest Airlines gets anti-strike ruling

EAGAN, Minn., Sept. 15 (UPI) -- Northwest Airlines won a U.S. court decision Friday that blocks its flight attendants from striking the bankrupt carrier.

U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero overturned a bankruptcy court decision and granted Northwest's request for a preliminary injunction to prevent a threatened strike or work action by members of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

Northwest and the unions representing its flight attendants have negotiated two tentative agreements. In July, flight attendants rejected a tentative contract agreement that Northwest had negotiated with AFA and that would have met the targeted $195 million in annual labor cost savings. AFA endorsed that tentative agreement and recommended that its members vote in favor of it.

As a result of the contract rejection, Northwest implemented contract terms and conditions July 31 for flight attendants that met the required $195 million of annual labor cost savings for that group.

Union leaders were furious with the Marrero decision and vowed to appeal.

"Management and the courts can gang up on us but they cannot defeat us," said Mollie Reiley, the union's interim master executive council president.