Northwest said it would restart the bankruptcy court process in which it's seeking to reject its union contract with those workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said it expected negotiations to resume, though Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch declined to comment on that.
IAM ticket agents and reservations workers accepted their pay-cut contract in a separate vote. The rejected contract would have imposed an 11.5 percent pay cut and numerous work rule changes on baggage handlers who made roughly $20 an hour before Northwest filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 14. Temporary pay cuts of 19 percent will remain in effect.
The union held Northwest's proposal at arm's length all along. It never recommended which way members should vote. It never even called it an "agreement." Instead, the union said it was just letting members vote on the best offer it could get, under the threat that Northwest could impose terms that were even worse.
"If this was regular negotiations, the committee would have turned this down. We would have said 'No,' we would have been on strike," said Bobby De Pace, president of the IAM district that includes Northwest workers.
The union won some victories in the talks. The rejected contract would have scaled back Northwest's outsourcing proposals, and shifted the airline's pension plan for IAM workers to the union's plan. Union leaders also said the proposal would have saved 649 of 733 jobs that Northwest wanted to outsource, and kept 82 percent of its jobs overall.
De Pace said the strike vote and rejection will give the union the power to get a better deal.
"Our membership has spoken loud and clear and now they've given us the authorization for a strike. And so now we'll see," he said.
Northwest issued a statement saying it was disappointed with the vote.
Voting on the Northwest proposal wrapped up on Monday. The union said three-quarters of its roughly 14,000 members cast paper ballots that had to be counted by hand. About 5,600 of them are baggage handlers; the balloting ran 60 percent against the contract for that group. Sixty-seven percent of voters among the airline's 7,600 ticket and reservations agents voted to approve their contract.
Northwest has been pushing for $1.4 billion in permanent pay cuts and rule changes for its workers. In January, the IAM became the first of the large unions to agree.
Flight attendants and pilots made deals on March 1 and 3 which could go to members for ratification in coming weeks. Both have authorized strikes if the tentative agreements are not ratified.
The IAM rejection comes at a delicate time for Northwest.
If it sweetens its offer to baggage handlers, it could entice pilots and flight attendants to reject their agreements and hold out for better offers, said University of Minnesota labor relations professor John Budd. But if Northwest rejects the baggage handler contract it risks emboldening the other unions to vote down their tentative agreements, too, he said.
"The airline needs to choose its next steps exceedingly carefully," he said.
Separately Tuesday, the judge overseeing Northwest's bankruptcy case in New York ruled that attorneys, bankers and consultants in the case will have to wait for some of the nearly $15 million in fees they seek for 31/2 months of work.
Judge Allan Gropper said he was holding back 20 percent of the fees until a future date. The U.S. Trustee's office, which works with the judge to oversee the bankruptcy process, had sought the delay, saying it would be an incentive for a successful resolution of Northwest's bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, the carrier was given until May 1 to provide a new list of its assets and liabilities -- a month earlier than Northwest had wanted. The detail will provide a better look at company's financial health.
WCCO-TV Minneapolis/ St. Paul
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