NWA Ground Crews Walk Off The Job at MSP

Malko

Malko

ughhh
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WTH?

NWA ground workers at MSP walk off the job in the middle of the day, slowing travel Updated: 11/21/2006 10:50:53 PM




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Northwest ground handlers walk off the job in the Twin Cities, leaving passengers and their bags delayed. Union members tried to deny that they had walked off the job for a short time Tuesday, and NWA management even backed them up.

But 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS quickly reminded them that we have it all on tape.

At first, we couldn't believe what we were seeing.

Tuesday, promptly at 12 noon, and right in front of our camera, Northwest ground workers stopped working and drove baggage carts, tugs, and anything they had to one spot for a 20-minute rally.

While they were high-tailing it to one side of the airport, planes filled with passengers went nowhere. They couldn't come in, they couldn't go out. No bags were loaded, no bags were unloaded.

Thanksgiving-week travelers were angered by action.
"It is ridiculous, I understand their point, but what are we suppose to do, not get our luggage?" said passenger Julie Stomo, who waited almost an hour.
Passenger Kevin Kelly said he thought it was bad timing.

"There are so many people needing to get to where they are going, they are coming to see family, it really isn't a good time to mess with strikes or corporate issues, I think."
Passengers waiting for bags told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that the airline offered no explanation for delays. One ramp worker even denied there was a work stoppage.
"I don't believe anyone walked off the job," he told us. "I don't think there were any disruptions, I didn't see any."
But we did. So what do you call it when workers stop working? The airline's Web site, for example, called it a delay "due to non-scheduled maintenance."

The only thing wrong with flight 123 to Phoenix, was that there was no one to push it back from the gate.
"Ugh, honestly," a frustrated passenger said. "I'll say it is the wrong time of year to do it. What do they want? More money?"

The union leadership said its members are upset because some airplane cleaning jobs are being outsourced.

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS will watch this situation throughout the holiday season.
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I'm so sorry I didn't realize my livelihood is more important than your lesuire trip. Worried about getting someplace? just drive.
 
pilot602 said:
I'm so sorry I didn't realize my livelihood is more important than your lesuire trip. Worried about getting someplace? just drive.
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When you say Your, I hope you are talking to the people in the article. If not, whoa nelly........I'm just posting the article.

You got to love this one:

...."Ugh, honestly," a frustrated passenger said. "I'll say it is the wrong time of year to do it. What do they want? More money?"
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:insane: :whatever:
 
I hope they got a lot of support from pilots on the radio. Quite frankly i'd sit there for as long as I needed to as that was going on.
 
Screaming_Emu said:
I hope they got a lot of support from pilots on the radio. Quite frankly i'd sit there for as long as I needed to as that was going on.
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The pilots didn't have any choice, they were stuck there. They couldn't get pushed back from the gates.
 
Perfect time of year. Good job!

Might have been a 20 minute delay for Molly McButter in 27C with a discount ticket and her life partner's flying for free because she bought groceries on her credit card all year, but the ground pounders have been dealing with crap for tremendously longer.
 
Something seems to happen to the average American when they fly, especially those that do infrequently. All of a sudden, their ego is bigger than if they had met the president. THEY are sooo damn cool because they are flying. You can see it in their airport swagger, how they talk, and what they say on their cell phones.

I mention this because I am struggling to discern the motivation of some passengers in that article being so damn insenstive to these peoples (The ground crews) plight. I am trying to give the average passenger the benefit of this notion; their ego is big and they are more self-focused than ever.

Awwww....poor oobie doobie woo woo...... your holiday leisure trip got delayed for 20 minutes so the ground crew to just give management a hint of what could happen. Big deal.
 
As someone who never plans on becoming a professional pilot (management maybe) I got a kick out of this. Sure, I'd be pissed... massively pissed if this happened to me while I was traveling. Thing is, that's the entire point.

The airline is a business, and it is essentially all about customer service. Continue to nickle, dime and wage slave their employees they can't possibly expect the employees to give a s#!t about the company or the customers. These people aren't working long days putting up with passenger b.s. because they like it, they're doing to to feed their families.

Since it's service oriented business, walking out for 20 minutes during the holidays is a good way to let the company know that they need to address issues or face consequences. That said, the employees should also understand that while angering customers will absolutely get the message sent to management, it might also hurt them in the long run. There are consequences for every action.

If the company can not treat employees well, they can't expect to get the most out of their employees, the best service for their customers or to operate efficiently. It means they either need to rethink their business model or expect to get more of the same.
 
Are you guys kidding? How does anyone know that these were leisure travelers? And even if they were, does it really matter? These passengers are customers that ultimately pay the bills for the airline, if they get a good deal, why is that their fault? Blame management for screwing the employees, but don't screw the passengers-that's simply incredibly short sighted.

The passengers contracted with the airline for a service, and a bunch of people who have no authority to do so decided to change that contract without permission. What if the guys at the power company decided that they were uderpaid and decided to turn the electricity off for half an hour? "People are just watching American Idol, anyway!" they might say. But it's just not their call to do it, just like it's not the call of employees-especially employees of companies that have received government monies to keep them solvent- to decide that it's time to stick it to the man. There's a mechanism for a strike, these folks should either use it, or not. In the meantime, hardworking as these people are, they really ought to be punished, if not fired.

-LC
 
Yes, lets fire them, and outsource their jobs completely. Why half a** it right? Hell, while we're at it, lets outsource pilot jobs too because foreigners will fly Delta's fleet for $12 and a waffle. :sarcasm:
 
*deep sigh* You see, this is exactly the point! Why wouldn't a company hire the least expensive labor it possibly could? -And I didn't say anything about outsourcing or hiring foriegn labor. Yet there is another point here to be understood, and let me give an example:

A friend of mine, who lives and works overseas, finds herself in dire straights medically. She comes to the United States where the standard of care is better, and her overseas company understands and says to her "See you in January." That's really nice of them, yet she still told them that she would not be returning to this third world nation, and would be remaining in the US because of the better health care. Her employer, and fellow employees, simply couldn't believe that *anyone, anywhere* would *ever* walk away from a good job. Any job is hard to come by, and a good job even more so.
That, along with lower rates of pay, is one reason that outsourcing continues to happen.

NWA management is clearly not the best, yet if I were one of them (I'm not) I'd be hard pressed to look out for the best interests of employees who sabotage the company. Most employers have a view of their employees that tries to look out for their interests (believe it or not), so that makes it very difficult when the employees won't even look out for themselves. I've had to fire people, admonish them, and deny promotions based upon performance and conduct. It sucks and I hate doing it. Yet the fact remains that if a person, or group of persons refuse to behave responsibly, and instead throw a tantrum, how could management possibly treat them as anything less than children?

Again, NWA management and labor, and the entire industry, is in conflict. This type of behavior isn't going to help anything.
 
I remember when I was on the ramp in PHL we were supposed to do this a number of times but I guess it just never materialized. Instead people just decided to call out sick and when I came off of vacation and back to work there were 91 carts of bags waiting to be sorted. :)
 
The point isn't looking for better jobs or holding onto a good job when you have it. They are protesting NWA's attempts to outsource their jobs. I let a lot go and don't particularly care for much of the politics of the business but outsourcing, no matter where its too, is wrong. It degrades the loyal workers that have been there, it forces the new workers to work for pennies, and all its for is so the exec's can have a few more million, which is the point of the corporate side, I see that, but then you link it to customers and all of a sudden the service is down because of poorly trained employees who are there for just what has been said.... to rake in a few dollars after back breaking labor to be able to feed their family or send some money back home. Im not saying your wrong I just don't agree with it is all LC.
 
LostComm said:
*deep sigh* You see, this is exactly the point! Why wouldn't a company hire the least expensive labor it possibly could? -And I didn't say anything about outsourcing or hiring foriegn labor. Yet there is another point here to be understood, and let me give an example:
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Because you get what you pay for. If you pay absolute minimum wages and make it blatantly obvious you don't care about the people that work for you, you'll have workers that don't care what happens, assuming they even stick around. End result? Passengers get pissed b/c they misconnect, their luggage gets send to MCI instead of MCO and freight and mail never make the flight, thus leading to lost revenue. In the end, if you paid the workers better and cared, the revenue wouldn't be lost, you'd get better word of mouth advertising and might even make a bigger profit instead of taking a loss b/c you had to transport those late bags or give out so many free tickets.

A friend of mine, who lives and works overseas, finds herself in dire straights medically. She comes to the United States where the standard of care is better, and her overseas company understands and says to her "See you in January." That's really nice of them, yet she still told them that she would not be returning to this third world nation, and would be remaining in the US because of the better health care. Her employer, and fellow employees, simply couldn't believe that *anyone, anywhere* would *ever* walk away from a good job. Any job is hard to come by, and a good job even more so.
That, along with lower rates of pay, is one reason that outsourcing continues to happen.
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Apples to oranges in the airline world. You can't just ship the ramp job in MSP overseas to cheaper labor. They would have to come HERE, thus acquiring a higher cost of living and requiring a higher wage (unless they lived 10 to a room in an apartment). Even then, after being here for a while, they'd start to want what others around them have.
NWA management is clearly not the best, yet if I were one of them (I'm not) I'd be hard pressed to look out for the best interests of employees who sabotage the company.
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Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Did management cut wages and outsource the cleaning jobs to cheaper labor or did the employees walk off for 20 minutes? Looks to me like management threw the first punch in this one....

Most employers have a view of their employees that tries to look out for their interests (believe it or not), so that makes it very difficult when the employees won't even look out for themselves.
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This works as long as both goals are exactly the same. In this case, they aren't. NWA has outsourced hundreds of ramp jobs in outstations already, and now the cleaning jobs are being outsourced in the hubs. The employees ARE looking out for themselves, and that's the problem in management's eyes. They don't want to "take one for the team" so the upper level guys can get bigger Xmas bonuses or a golden parachute. What would you want the employees to do? Say "Please, go ahead and cut my pay and hours, as long as I still have a job? My kids don't need to eat and my house can be foreclosed on, but NWA must go on?" At some point, labor NEEDS to draw a line in the sand, and management at NWA just keeps pushing them further and further towards that line.

Yet the fact remains that if a person, or group of persons refuse to behave responsibly, and instead throw a tantrum, how could management possibly treat them as anything less than children?
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You're assuming management has held up their end of the bargain, which isn't entirely the case. Hell yes the employees are mad. Some of these people have given 18 years to NWA only to have their job given to someone else at $6 an hour to save a buck. How is the company caring about that person now?
 
Even easier. They did it when they did it because more people are paying attention and it helps automagically get the message across.

No one died.

No one was horribly delayed.

No flights were cancelled.

Everyone got to where they were going, probably on time or even early.
 
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