A discussion about the airline industry, airline employees, and all things related

With a judge now setting a date in which Northwest Airlines can throw out flight attendants old contract and impose a new one on them the flight attendants have dumped their smaller union in favor for a larger one.  Over 60 per cent of flight attendants at Northwest Airlines voted to join the Association of Flight Attendants.  But with July 17th drawing closer and closer, the union and the flight attendants may have run out of time. 
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Northwest Airlines flight attendants voted on Thursday to throw out their independent union and join the larger, stronger Association of Flight Attendants. But with Northwest free to impose new pay cuts and work rule changes on July 17, it may be too late for the new union to negotiate improvements.

Flight attendants voted 62 percent to 38 percent to drop the Professional Flight Attendants Association and join the AFA.

National Mediation Board rules call for it to certify the new union within one business day. Talks with Northwest had been scheduled for Friday, although it wasn't immediately clear whether the union vote would change that. AFA spokeswoman Corey Caldwell said local councils have already been set up in nine cities where Northwest flies, and that elections would be held no later than October.

Northwest Airlines Corp. said it looks forward to working with the AFA and that it would meet with the new union "in the near future to determine how and when bargaining will proceed."

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