MINNEAPOLIS (AFX) - A week after a New York judge temporarily blocked flight attendants at Northwest Airlines Corp. from striking, no immediate resolution was in sight.
Flight attendants have threatened scattershot walkouts aimed at pressuring Northwest to offer them a better deal. The flight attendants have said they won't negotiate with Northwest unless they have the power to strike.
On Aug. 25, U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero barred job actions by flight attendants while he decides whether to make them follow some of the lengthy requirements of the Railway Labor Act before striking, such as a 30-day cooling-off period.
Flight attendants have argued they're free from those requirements, because Northwest imposed pay cuts and other changes on them without their consent.
Marrero has not said when he will rule, the union and the airline both said Friday.
David Borer, general counsel for the Association of Flight Attendants, told union members in a Webcast on Thursday that a ruling was likely next week.
The judge overseeing Northwest's bankruptcy reorganization ruled last month that labor law precluded him from blocking a strike. Northwest appealed that decision to Marrero.
But whoever loses under Marrero's ruling is expected to appeal, and it's possible Marrero or another judge would continue to block walkouts while that appeal is heard.
Rick Thornton, a spokesman for the Northwest branch of the Association of Flight Attendants, said the union knows which flights it will strike once it gets permission from a judge.
'We've got flight numbers in a hat, we're ready to go,' he said.
Northwest has said it has a contingency plan in place to fly through any job actions.
Eagan-based Northwest, the nation's fifth-largest airline, has said it needs $195 million a year in savings from the flight attendants, and the two negotiated agreements rejected over the summer by flight attendants both achieved that number.
In a Webcast presentation to union members on Thursday, Borer and other union leaders downplayed the idea of negotiating cuts smaller than $195 million, instead saying they hope to negotiate improvements that may still meet the $195 million goal.
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