By Doug Cunningham

Delta Airlines flight attendants will soon get the chance to vote on whether they want to join the Association of Flight Attendants –CWA. The National Mediation Board this week authorized the representation election. AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend said flight attendants know that her union has experience in the fluctuations of the airline industry and have learned how to negotiate programs that offer real solutions for airline workers. The National Mediation Board now will schedule an election for the 13,000 Delta flight attendants. The election will be secret ballot

Flight attendants for Delta Airlines are taking another shot at gaining union representation. Jesse Russell reports:

With Delta Airlines considering a merger with Northwest or United Airlines, flight attendants are aiming once again for union representation. Workers are seeking representation by the Association of Flight Attendants, a division of the Communication Workers of America. If 35 percent of the flight attendants file cards on Thursday in favor of an election, the National Mediation Board will call an election. The last time the flight attendants sought union representation at Delta was in 2001. In that election, representation was rejected. The AFA already represents the flight attendants at Northwest Airlines. Overall, the union represents more than 55,000 attendants in the industry. An announcement about a merger could come as early as this week.

By Doug Cunningham

Union leaders representing 90,000 flight attendants are meeting in Washington for a three-day bargaining summit. The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, Transport Workers Union and the International Association of Machinists are preparing an overall strategy to try to secure gains in upcoming contract after years of deep concessions imposed through bankruptcies.

By Doug Cunningham

Reacting to five U.S. Airways crew members being sickened by carbon monoxide fumes on an aircraft, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA says it could have been prevented. Union president, Pat Friend says poor cabin air quality has been an issue front and center for the AFA-CWA for years. Friend says efforts to improve cabin air quality on flights has been thwarted by airlines management and the Federal Aviation Administration.

By Doug Cunningham

A bankruptcy judge Tuesday agreed with the Association of Flight Attendants, CWA and denied millions of dollars in extra fees to law firms that represented Northwest airlines in its bankruptcy. Two more requests for extra fees will be heard later. The union had argued that if the company has extra millions laying around, they should go to the workers, who had to endure deep pay and benefits cuts in the bankruptcy.

By Doug Cunningham

Northwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the AFA-CWA have received cash and 401(K) contributions of about $14,500 each. The money comes from a $182 million equity claim negotiated by the union during Northwest’s bankruptcy. Flight attendants were forced by the bankruptcy to accept pay and benefits cuts of roughly forty percent.

By Doug Cunningham

A passengers rights group has joined the AFA-CWA flight attendants union in urging Congress to make changes in aviation policy on ho long passengers have to stay onboard planes when there are delays in the flight schedule. The Coalition for A Passengers Bill of Rights wants Congress to enforce a deplanement policy, upgrade the air traffic control system, standardize carry-on baggage policies and provide a safer working environment for flight attendants.

By Doug Cunningham

AFA-CWA President Patricia Friend is testifying before Congress today on the need to include flight attendant fatigue concerns in National Transportation Safety Board recommendations on reducing accidents on flights. Friend says fatigue is a very real and serious concern for both flight attendants and the flying public because fatigued flight attendants poses potential safety risks. Friend says it’s critical that NTSB recommendations adequately address fatigue issues.

By Doug Cunningham

AFA-CWA, the union representing Northwest Airlines flight attendants, is providing an average of $14,500 per flight attendant to help offset losses suffered by workers during Northwest Airlines bankruptcy. The money comes from the sale of a $182 million bankruptcy equity claim. The union is getting nearly 65 cents on the dollar for the claim. The proceeds will be given to the workers 40 percent in cash and 60 percent as 401(k) contributions within two to three weeks. Some Northwest Airlines workers will also get stock in the bankruptcy reorganization after the union sued

By Doug Cunningham

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and the Airline Pilots Association are rallying Wednesday in Minnesota to protest the growing pay disparity between company executives and employees at Northwest Airlines. The rally in St. Paul Minnesota will be at the state capitol. Workers and unions from across Minnesota have been invited to the rally. The pilot’s union will set up it’s 25 foot tall inflatable rat on the capitol grounds as working families protest the huge pay inequity between executives and workers.

Northwest Airlines workers are objecting to a reorganization plan. Jesse Russell reports:

By Jesse Russell

Pilots, baggage handlers, and flight attendants have objected to part of Northwest Airlines reorganization that will give nearly five percent of the company to 400 top executives. The three unions that represent those workers protested the move suggesting it would be too costly for the airline as it attempts to lift off from bankruptcy. The flight attendants are currently voting on a new contract that would lock in pay cuts for four years. They need to approve the contract if the union wishes to have a stake in the reorganization.

By Doug Cunningham

Northwest Airlines flight attendants have won a round in bankruptcy court - a $65 million claim on payment for preferred Series C stock. The Association of Flight Attendants - CWA had sued on behalf of the flight attendants who held the company Series C preferred stock and the court upheld the claim. Workers holding those stocks will now be compensated. That stock was issued by Northwest in an agreement with the Teamsters, who in 1993 was the union representing the flight attendants. Northwest tried to stiff the workers on the stock's value by declaring bankruptcy, but the workers have won a bankruptcy court claim.

By Doug Cunningham

Hobbled by court rulings that let Northwest Airlines throw out union contracts and prevent the union from striking, the Association of Flight Attendants CWA has reached a tentative agreement with Northwest giving the airline the huge concessions it was after. AFA-CWA’s Master Executive Council Vice-President Andy Wisbach.

[Wisbacher]: “It's still a deal that represents $195 million of concessions to the company. We were able to get some movement on some non-economic items - I understand some scheduling issues and things like that. But as far as the economic items, there was no change on that."

By Doug Cunningham

The Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and Northwest Airlines are in intense federally mediated negotiations that started Friday. It’s the latest effort to reach an agreement on huge concessions demanded by Northwest as the airline used bankruptcy proceedings to try to destroy union contracts.

By Doug Cunningham

Northwest Airlines flight attendants picketed in Detroit Thursday to protest a plan to give 400 executives a 4.9 percent share of ownership in the airline when it emerges from bankruptcy. The executives are being rewarded while the workers who make the airline fly are being forced to sacrifice with deep pay and benefits cuts. The Association for Flight Attendants-CWA is fighting a court-imposed ban on a strike at Northwest and has asked that contract talks with the bankrupt airline be officially declared at an impasse. Northwest has begun making substantial profits - much sooner than it told the bankruptcy it would. So the union maintains that the steep concessions from workers are no longer needed.

By Doug Cunningham

The Association of Flight Attendants – CWA is escalating its legal battle for the right to strike at Northwest Airlines. The union is petitioning the U.S. Court of Appeals for a full review of it’s three judge panel’s ruling upholding a injunction against a strike. The union is asserting its right to strike because Northwest arbitrarily threw out the union contract, violating the collective bargaining agreement. But the court decided Northwest’s action in bankruptcy was not a breach of the contract but an annulment of it and therefore Northwest could not a breach a contract that didn’t exist. The union calls that a “unique approach to the law”.

By Doug Cunningham

Northwest Airlines flight attendants represented by the CWA are looking for relief from $192 million a year in concessions forced upon them by the airline and the bankruptcy court. On Thursday the union will be in court arguing for a reduction in the concessions and on the picket lines at airports. The pickets are informational – to let the public know that Northwest took 40 percent of flight attendants’ compensation when the union contracts were thrown out. And now that Northwest is making more money faster than it told the court it expected, the airline doesn’t need to take as much from the workers. Association of Flight Attendants-CWA spokesman Ricky Thornton.

The CWA's Association of Flight Attendants at Northwest Airlines
is trying to lift a legal order not to strike. Jesse Russell explains.

By Jesse Russell

In September a U.S. federal judge ruled that Northwest Airlines flight attendants should not be allowed to strike while in mediation and the matter should be left up to the bankruptcy court. On Tuesday lawyers for the flight attendants represented by the Association of Flight Attendants
asked the federal appeals court to throw out the lower court ruling. They have called the injunction unlawful because the airline terminated their labor contract in July and imposed wage and benefit cuts.

Although a bankruptcy court judge has ruled Mesaba Airline workers can’t strike, they are still planning to protest.

By Jesse Russell

The airline plans to impose pay and benefit cuts today after a bankruptcy court judge ruled earlier this week that workers could not strike or take any action resembling a strike - such as a work slowdown. The pilots, flight attendants, and mechanics plan to hold pickets at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis this afternoon. They have appealed the ruling by Judge Gregory Kishel and are considering picketing the airport. Flight Attendants from Northwest Airlines have said that they plan to join in the rally.

By Doug Cunningham

A ruling could come as early as this week on whether Mesaba Airlines flight attendants can legally strike. Bankruptcy Judge Gregory Kishel will decide that issue soon. In the meantime he’s blocking Mesaba from destroying union contracts and imposing its terms on the workers. Mesaba is a feeder carrier for Northwest Airlines, where flight attendants have ask a federal mediator to declare an impasse in talks. Thirty days after that is declared they can legally strike Northwest. Unions for flight attendants, pilots and mechanics at Mesaba say the law bars judges from block