Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth vowed a strike that could kill Mesaba if it imposes a new contract on pilots - even though a judge has given the airline permission to do so. And he said he won't sign a contract that includes similar terms, even if Mesaba's 730 active pilots approve it.
If Mesaba "wants to keep the company alive, they're going to have to meet my terms," he said.
The pilot's union has been forced to accept contracts handed out by judges at so many airlines lately that the pilot's union has become so upset at the situation that they would risk loosing everyone's job at the airline rather than accept a contract that would slash pay and cut benefits for the pilots. Under the new contract a new pilot at Mesaba would start at $16,417 a year.
According to the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Poverty level for one person in the United States living in the lower 48 states is $9,800 in the year 2006. If you have a significant other and one child the poverty level in the lower 48 states is $16,600 a year. Good thing the United States still has the food stamp program!
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Mesaba provides the only air service in many of the 98 cities it flies to, mostly in the Midwest. Its fleet once included about 100 planes, including some small jets, but Northwest is reducing it to 49 prop-driven Saabs that seat up to 34 passengers.
Woerth's threat was the strongest yet from any of the unions fighting Mesaba's demands for major pay cuts. Mesaba has said it needs the concessions if it is to keep flying for Northwest, its only customer.
Strike threats have been common from pilots and other unions at bankrupt airlines. But this was the first time in any of the recent bankruptcies that Woerth has inserted himself so directly into the negotiations between an airline and its pilots.
Woerth said that's because the pay cuts negotiated at airlines such as bankrupt United Airlines, Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. left those pilots with enough to live on. At Mesaba, the union said a new first officer - the lowest-ranked, lowest-paid pilot at the airline - would make $16,417 a year under the company's proposal, down from $19,337 under the current contract.
"They know they can't live on this anyway," Woerth said. "And worse, they know what they'd be doing to their brother and sister pilots across the country." He said other regional carriers would aim for similar terms if Mesaba succeeds.
"If we don't fight it out here, we will never be safe in this industry. We might as well fight it out here," he said.
Mesaba has won permission from U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Gregory Kishel to impose a new contract on pilots, flight attendants and mechanics if it gives 10 days notice first. Mesaba has not started that clock ticking, and talks continued on Thursday.
A Mesaba spokesman did not return a phone message Thursday.
Flight attendants and mechanics have also raised the possibility of a strike.
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