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From: Kevin Griffin From an email
T1:
Category: Northwest News
Date: 20 Dec 2005
Time: 20:34:47 -0500
Remote Name: 211.18.199.251
Interesting note from Kevin "Jon Austin, a spokesman for MAIR" once was the spokesman for NWA not long ago. -------------------------------------- Mesaba Airlines pilots, flight attendants protest salary cuts Protestors claim proposed wage scale could push some crew members below the federal poverty level Joel J. Smith / The Detroit News December 20, 2005 ROMULUS-- Pilots and flight attendants for Mesaba Airlines held informational pickets Monday afternoon at Detroit Metropolitan Airport to protest the bankrupt carrier’s efforts to slash workers’ pay by almost 20 percent. The protestors claim the new proposed wage scale could push some crew members below the federal poverty level and qualify them for food stamps. “A first officer’s starting salary now is $21,186 a year,” said Annmarie Savitski, 35, of Ann Arbor, who has been a pilot for Mesaba for 7 1/2 years and is now a captain flying Saab 340 aircraft. “They want to reduce that to $17,157 a year and make a pilot with a family pay 50 percent of the insurance premium. “We might as well go to work for Wal-Mart. That’s the kind of wages they want to pay us. It’s shocking.” Officials for the airline’s pilot and flight attendant unions claim Mesaba, which flies under the Northwest Airlink banner as a regional carrier for Northwest Airlines, is hoarding $120 million in cash in a parent company, MAIR Holdings Inc. “The $120 million was all earned by us,” Savitski, who is the Air Line Pilots Association representative at Detroit Metro for Mesaba pilots. “What a sham.” MAIR denies the accusation. “They have the right to their own opinion,” said Jon Austin, a spokesman for MAIR. “Some of that money has been spent on Mesaba. MAIR lent Mesaba $32 million just a couple of months ago. MAIR also has offered Mesaba $32 million in financing.” All of Mesaba’s revenue has been generated through Northwest, which markets its flights, sells its tickets and pays the Minneapolis-based regional carrier for its costs plus a profit. Two days before Northwest filed for bankruptcy Sept. 14, Northwest defaulted on a $30 million payment to Mesaba. Within weeks, Mesaba followed Northwest into bankruptcy. As the same time, Northwest began reducing its regional flight schedule and returning planes it owns but leases to Mesaba to financing companies. That meant Mesaba had to reduce expenses and labor was a major target. Mesaba, which has operated 100 planes, removed nine regional jets in November and has 10 Saab 340 turbo-prop aircraft coming out of service in January. Ultimately, Northwest plans to reduce the Masaba fleet by half. “It’s more a matter of timing, not if they will be taken out of service,” said Elizabeth Costello, a spokeswoman for Mesaba. “We’ll be down to half our size.” She said Mesaba wants to achieve 19.4 percent in cost saving from all its employees. That doesn’t sit well with Chris Collins, 31, a five-year pilot with Mesaba from Dearborn. Last week, he was bumped from a captain position to a first officer because of company furloughs. That took him from about $50,000 a year to just above $30,000. Now he says Mesaba wants to cut his pay another 17 percent and make him pay 50 percent of his health insurance costs. “I’ll have to start thinking about selling my home and moving into an apartment,” said Collins, who is single. “I’ll have to cancel the cable television, Internet and even my home phone. I’ll have to start looking for a second job, maybe at Lowe’s or Home Depot.” Mesaba has about 900 pilots with about 310 based in Detroit. Mesaba has 600 daily departures under the Northwest Airlines flag, 260 originating from Detroit. Collins is worried if Mesaba cuts back to 49 aircraft, he’ll lose his job. The 600 Mesaba flight attendants—including 240 based at Detroit Metro—aren’t any better off. The $15,000 starting pay for flight attendants will drop to $11,949 with medical insurance premiums coming from that. Most won’t be able to afford insurance, flight attendants say. “It’s not a livable wage,” said Nick Birchfield, 32, of Wayne, head of the Mesaba’s Detroit local of the Association of Flight Attendants. “We just can’t accept it.”