By
Associated Press
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - Northwest Airlines' mechanics, cleaners and custodians voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike against the nation's fourth-largest airline, union leaders said Saturday.
Members of the Airline Mechanics Fraternal Association voted 96 percent in favor of authorizing job actions, including a full-scale strike, the union said.
"This group is prepared to go on strike and to fight for what they know are their economic rights," said Steve MacFarlane, president of AMFA Local 33.
He refused to disclose the vote totals and results on two other ballot questions concerning the scale of the possible strike.
"We would just as soon leave Northwest Airlines guessing as to what we're going to do on March 11," MacFarlane said.
Representatives of Northwest and the union will meet Wednesday with the National Mediation Board in Washington. A 30-day cooling off period ends at midnight March 12.
Northwest's senior vice president for labor relations, Robert Brodin, said the union won't be legally free to strike or stage other job actions until mid-May at the earliest.
"The strike vote by AMFA was not unexpected and is part of the normal bargaining process as negotiations reach the latter stages," Brodin said. "We want to assure our customers that regardless of the vote, Northwest Airlines will continue to fly a full schedule."
President Bush said last month that if the dispute were not settled by the March 12 deadline he would further delay any job action for 60 days by appointing a presidential emergency board to look at the issues and propose a solution.
MacFarlane noted that Bush hasn't done that yet, and speculated that Bush may be rethinking his decision to step in.
Pay issues are the biggest problem. While Northwest says it has offered an industry-leading wage package, MacFarlane said it wouldn't make up for pay cuts employees took in 1993 to help keep Northwest out of bankruptcy.
