Machinists union reaches tentative agreement with Northwest Airlines

In announcing the tentative agreement, on which the membership will vote at some point before a June 14 bankruptcy court deadline, IAM President Robert De Pace issued an ultimatum to union members, declaring, “This vote will not be about what the contract is. It’s about whether you want your job or not.”

The agreement sanctions the potential destruction of some 700 jobs by the company and retains an 11.5 percent pay cut. Other givebacks include the loss of one week’s vacation, elimination of three holidays and the end of money paid for shift differentials.

The path by which future employees reach the top wage rate will be extended from five to nine years. Previously, Northwest paid 100 percent of retiree health insurance costs for workers 55 and older. The new agreement would lower the company’s contribution to 50 percent.

The current retirement plan, which paid $51 per month per year of service, will be frozen and replaced with an agreement by the company to contribute 5 percent of gross earnings to an IAM national pension plan once the carrier emerges from bankruptcy or 12 months from the date of contract ratification.

Back in March, IAM ramp workers rejected a similar concessionary agreement by a 60 percent margin. One of the major differences in the new agreement is that the IAM bureaucracy has cynically negotiated severance provisions for veteran workers who, demoralized by the dead-end they find themselves in, might provide the margin for passage of the new agreement by voting to accept the new contract and get out while they can.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/may2006/nwa-m25.shtml