"The agreement is a painful but necessary part of a successful restructuring of Northwest Airlines," NWA Master Executive Council (MEC) Chairman Capt. Mark McClain said. "Now is the time for Northwest pilots to unite and begin looking forward to our company's successful emergence from bankruptcy."
The new agreement retains the current 23.9 percent pay cut NWA pilots agreed to in November 2005 and provides NWA pilots with significant scope protections against the outsourcing of mainline flying to small jets. NWA pilots successfully retained all flying on 77-seat and higher aircraft while limiting the number of small jets to 55 (or 90 if placed at an affiliate) 51- 76 seat aircraft. In addition, NWA pilots receive an $888 million unsecured claim in NWA and participate in profit sharing and success sharing once the company emerges from bankruptcy.
"Our goal in negotiations was to provide contract changes which addressed Northwest's needs, but also provided security for Northwest pilot jobs," Capt. McClain said. "Our negotiators did a remarkable job preventing Northwest management's excessive small-jet demands and retaining merger and fragmentation rights for Northwest pilots."
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