Opinion: Looking Back At The Northwest Airlines Mechanics’ Strike

This year marks the 20th anniversary of an event that permanently affected aviation maintenance for airlines and yet was barely noticed by the flying public—the Northwest Airlines/Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association mechanics’ strike.

Like many legacy airlines in the early 2000s, the glory days of profitability from the previous decade(s) were a distant memory. The harsh economic environment forced the major airlines to cut costs to survive, while many smaller airlines folded.

At Northwest Airlines (NWA), all salaried and union employees had accepted concessionary compensation, with the exception of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Prevailing speculation was that AMFA leadership eyed the larger membership representation votes at other majors and would not accept concessions, despite understanding NWA’s financial fragility. With negotiations continuing to deteriorate in 2004, the NWA leadership began planning to operate the airline in the event of an AMFA workforce strike.

AMFA represented more than 5,000 NWA employees, and replacing them in a single night was extremely challenging. Above all, an effective contingency plan had to have some critical deliverables:

• The airline’s operations would run at 100% and had to remain safe and compliant.

• The airline had to maintain the confidence of the aircraft crews, the FAA and the flying public.

• The whole team had to be committed to achieving the plan, and the CEO and the board had to believe the plan could be executed (since failure would have shut down the airline).

While the final plan was enormously detailed, the most critical task was sourcing and certifying replacement personnel and providers for:

• 1,500 line maintenance mechanics in 31 maintenance stations.

• All aircraft heavy maintenance.

• All engines and auxiliary power units.

• Aircraft cleaners in 12 station locations.

• Mechanics conducting aircraft pushbacks at 28 station locations.

• Ground radio technicians in one location.

• Plant and facilities technicians in 13 locations.

• Home for every part—source and certify component maintenance providers to support the repair of about 10,000 individual components.

• Almost 3,000 flight attendants in the event they conducted sympathy labor actions.

Preparing to replace this amount of work was difficult in itself, but the real challenge was time.

The airline estimated that the negotiations process would likely end in the late summer/early fall if AMFA were to strike. When a fully dedicated project team started detailed preparation, it was seven months before the airline had to be ready.

The airline’s managers collectively dedicated tens of thousands of extra hours to the preparation. Days flowed into nights, and many weekends were spent working on endless details. Training centers were set up in remote cities in just weeks. Approval processes were reduced from months to days and hours. Support groups like security, information technology and human resources were enormously responsive.

When AMFA called the strike on Aug. 20, 2005, the previous weeks’ operations had been burdened by a significant spike of deferred maintenance (minimum equipment lists items and nonessential equipment and furnishings), delays and out-of-service aircraft resulting from disruptive behavior. Despite this, the tech ops team was ready. The AMFA mechanics were escorted off the property, and execution of hundreds of detailed checklists began in every station and work area.

Everything was inspected for serviceability, including aircraft, vehicles, ground support equipment and computer and phone lines. Replacement personnel were bused in, issued toolboxes and began work.  Maintenance and cleaning providers entered facilities all over the country and began working.  Enhanced quality oversight began immediately.

By 7 a.m. the next day, the checklists were complete, and the airline was up and running. As the days went on, the operational burdens were significantly reduced, and the operation began to run at historically normal reliability but at much lower cost.

After 444 days, AMFA settled with the company, but, sadly, many good AMFA-represented employees had permanently lost their jobs due to the union’s decision to strike.

For the maintenance team that had shown that a workforce could be completely replaced at an airline, those tough days had bonded them together. They had been through the most intense period in their careers. They had built relationships with many new team members in different roles, and they had sacrificed a lot of time with their families. Today, many still proudly say they feel like they fought a war together.

Dec Lee retired after working in aviation for more than 40 years. Starting as a mechanic in the UK Royal Air Force, he has worked in senior positions in engineering, quality, information technology, maintenance and airport operations for multiple MROs and major airlines.