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Category: Northwest News
Date: 17 Dec 2005
Time: 20:53:29 -0500
Remote Name: 219.127.227.66
Mesaba pilots to picket Monday Protests at Detroit and other Northwest hubs the result of demands for wage and benefit cuts MINNEAPOLIS -- Pilots for one of Northwest Airlines' regional feeder carriers planned to picket Monday at several airports. Pilots at bankrupt Mesaba Airlines said they will protest the demands for wage and benefit cuts the carrier is making in bankruptcy court. The pilots said they will picket at Northwest's hub airports in Minneapolis, Detroit, and Memphis. They also plan a picket at the Minneapolis headquarters of Mesaba parent MAIR Holdings Inc. "We recognize that when a carrier is truly in distress, relief may be appropriate. This is not that case," said Tom Wychor, chairman of the Mesaba unit of the Air Line Pilots Association. The union said Mesaba is trying to cut first-year pilot pay from $21,186 to $17,626. In 2004, Mesaba narrowly avoided a pilot strike by giving them raises as high as 27 percent. A Mesaba spokeswoman did not immediately return a phone message Friday. Mesaba flies under the Northwest Airlink name, ferrying passengers into Northwest Airlines hubs. Northwest, Mesaba's only customer, filed for bankruptcy protection Sept. 14, and Mesaba followed on Oct. 13. Northwest is Michigan's largest air passenger carrier. Together, Northwest and its Pinnacle and Mesaba regional partners handled 78 percent of the passengers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport in the first half of 2005.