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Radio Heartland Local Current Wonderground Radio Choral Classical Minnesota Public Radio About MPR Contact info Stations Careers Staff directory Company information Press room Members Events Shop Give Now Search MPR Judge temporarily blocks Northwest flight attendants from going on strike Business Jeff Horwich
In a statement, Northwest CEO Doug Steenland said he was pleased with the decision, and still hopes for a negotiated end to the conflict. He added that customers can continue to book Northwest with confidence. NWA flight attendant MPR Photo/Toni Randolph
After a two-hour hearing, cruise travel U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero did not rule on the major issue in the case -- whether a walkout by flight cruise travel attendants would be legal. He issued a preliminary injunction to give himself more time to consider all the legal arguments before making a final ruling.
"Of course there's some disappointment, but this is not a defeat by any means," Reiley said. "This judge is known to be a real scholar, and so I say let him take the time he's comfortable taking, to make, hopefully, a very good ruling and a favorable ruling for us."
Judge Marrero urged the parties to get back to the bargaining table. He gave them until Wednesday to get back to him about whether fruitful cruise travel talks are possible. If not, he said he would decide the case at a date that was hard to predict, "given the complexity of this matter."
Each side is arguing a different interpretation of a U.S. law called the Railway Labor Act. Northwest says the act requires mediated talks and a cooling-off period before a union can strike. The union says the act clearly allows an immediate cruise travel strike when a company does what Northwest did one month ago.
Northwest argues any ruling must respect the paramount goal of the bankruptcy process -- to maintain the health of the company. But the judge must also take into account a 1932 law that bars federal judges from blocking strikes cruise travel in most circumstances.
Anthony Sabino, a professor of bankruptcy law at St. John's University in New York, says Judge Marrero was "eminently reasonable" in giving himself more time to consider these intricacies. But he says the ones who need to do the serious thinking over the weekend are Northwest and its flight attendants. Northwest Airlines ticket counter MPR Photo/Toni Randolph
cruise travel "To be very frank, both of these groups are dancing on the edge of the cliff. And if they dance a little cruise travel bit more, they're both going to tumble off into the abyss," Sabino said. "Northwest needs wage cuts to keep flying, that's a given. The AFA workers have a right to a wage that they can live with, because they have bills to pay. But there has got to be a middle ground. There has got to be room for compromise because it is mutual survival or mutual destruction."
"He leaves today and he gets back the third of September," Cook said. "I was concerned that if there was a strike he wouldn't get back home, or it would be more inconvenient for him to get back home."
cruise travel The union has threatened a strategy of sporadic, seemingly random cruise travel walkouts it calls CHAOS, for Create Havoc Around Our System. The union president says on the bright side, the judge's cruise travel temporary order gives more time for all Northwest flight attendants to complete their CHAOS training. Gallery Tory Peterson is a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines. MPR Photo/Toni Randolph View full gallery A Northwest Airlines ticket agent at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport, August cruise travel 25, 2006. MPR Photo/Toni Randolph cruise travel Passengers wait to check in at the Northwest Airlines ticket cruise travel counter at the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport. MPR Photo/Toni Randolph Previous
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