NWA mechanics: Mood is angry, fuses are short

A senior Northwest Airlines mechanic, needing a specialized tool for a recent repair job, went to the company tool crib to request it.

The clerk behind the counter, also a veteran employee, greeted him with the kind of teasing banter that is routine among co-workers. But this time the mechanic snapped. He swore, kicked his way into the tool crib and lunged at the clerk. Other workers broke up their scuffle.

Dan Yanity, a peer counselor for NWA mechanics who described the outburst, said it was completely out of character for the mechanic but indicative of the angry mood in the airline's maintenance hangars at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

As the group's 4½-year-old contract negotiation has dragged on, Yanity said, the delay, acrimony and uncertainty have created stress that is spilling out on the shop floors in ugly ways.

"Everybody has a short fuse, a short temper," Yanity said. "It's little things that are setting people off anymore."

As is customary in the late stages of any extended labor negotiations, the Federal Aviation Administration has heightened its safety oversight of Northwest's maintenance and flight operations in the Twin Cities and other hubs, FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro said.

Frustrations mount

"The stress level is off the wall," said Mike Sawicki, another peer counselor for NWA mechanics. "People have put their lives on hold for so long, it's tough for them to take."

Jodie Douglas, director of human resources for Northwest's technical operations, said the company has "certainly noticed a lower level of productivity" in airplane maintenance as the contract dispute has lingered. But Douglas said she's not aware of any rise in absenteeism, workplace violence or other objectionable behavior among the company's 8,200 mechanics, about half of whom are based in the Twin Cities.

Northwest fleet managers Landon Nitschke, Wayne Frey and Rick Psau said mechanics clearly are frustrated by the contract discord, but more thorough than ever in their work.

"Is there a slowdown? Yes," said Frey, a Northwest employee since 1966. "Is safety being violated? Absolutely not. There's nothing that slips by."

Nitschke said some of the rank-and-file frustration is with the union -- the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) -- for not letting members vote on a substantially sweetened contract "supposal" offered by Northwest in the last couple of hours of negotiations.

To combat rumors and ease tension, the managers said they have increased their communication efforts. Psau said some mechanics responded in disbelief and "firm" tones recently when he explained the company's worsening finances.

"A couple of them got real vocal," said Psau, who said one of mechanics later apologized. "It was just frustration."

Yanity and Sawicki said they, along with the union's eight other peer counselors, try to defuse situations before mechanics get in trouble with their bosses. As volunteers for the AMFA, they said they have become overwhelmed with requests for help over the past year and a half. Both men said their caseloads as peer counselors have increased five-or sixfold in that time. Yanity has more than 300 open cases and Sawicki has more than 150.

"The guys who come to us, they can't stand to be at work," Yanity said. "They say, 'It's just this place.' They just can't stand this company."

Peer counselors

Yanity and Sawicki work as mechanics on Northwest's wide-bodied planes. But in their volunteer jobs as peer counselors they address issues of divorce, alcoholism, bankruptcy, domestic violence and depression. They believe the lack of a contract is helping to create more of those problems, and they say that far more mechanics than usual are struggling to cope with their emotions.

"As soon as I walk on the floor, there are guys grabbing my arm," Sawicki said. "We've had guys completely break down in our office."

Citing confidentiality reasons, Northwest's Douglas wouldn't say whether more mechanics are getting help for personal problems through the company's employee assistance programs. She noted that NWA spends about $1 million a year on the programs, which aren't mandated by union health care contracts. She also said workplace tension doesn't automatically correlate with more personal problems.

Yanity said many mechanics feel that Northwest doesn't care about them, which he described as "emotionally draining."

Media coverage is another stressor, he said. The labor dispute story is playing out in front of families, friends and neighbors, and some mechanics believe they have been portrayed as greedy or lazy.

"It has been a very restive membership, a very angry, sullen membership," AMFA lawyer Lee Seham said this week in comments to the Presidential Emergency Board that is studying the dispute.

The board will recommend settlement terms in a non-binding report April 10 or 11. Barring possible intervention by Congress, AMFA will be free to strike May 10 if no deal is worked out.

Even though one union official has said that having the May 10 strike deadline has had a calming effect on NWA's mechanics, Yanity said it has made no difference to many mechanics.

Mechanics stressed

He and Sawicki said one mechanic quit on the spot a few days ago, even after co-workers tried to convince him that a settlement -- complete with a windfall of back pay -- is near.

"They keep looking for that light at the end of the tunnel and the tunnel keeps getting longer," Yanity said.

He said the stressful work deadlock has become "the straw that broke the camel's back" in several instances in which mechanics are wrestling with other personal problems.

The fire department was called to a Northwest hangar in early February to rescue a distraught NWA mechanic who was threatening to jump from a catwalk, Yanity said. Twin Cities airport officials said the mechanic was "talked down" and taken to a hospital.

Earlier this week, an off-duty Northwest mechanic was drunk and threatening to kill himself. "He was saying he had it with all that was going on at work," Sawicki said. "We did a crisis intervention and got him in for treatment."

Another Northwest mechanic, who later said he was in no "condition" to be writing, sent a furious e-mail message March 12 to two Star Tribune reporters who had written feature stories about AMFA. "And if you think you want someone from McDonald's working on your airplane flying you from who knows where to where ever, then maybe you should consider what a 3½-minute ride to earth at 650 miles an hour would be like for 31/3 minutes," the mechanic wrote.

AMFA officials apologized on his behalf and the mechanic later sent his own apology. He said he'd been taking out years of "severe frustration" in the e-mail, and would never go to work in that shape.

Psychological factors

Rex Gatto of Gatto Training Associates, a Pittsburgh-based organizational consulting company, said unresolved labor conflicts build anxiety and depression among employees on both sides of negotiations.

"This starts out as a splinter," Gatto said. "Then it becomes a strong, festering infection."

The situation can be especially difficult for an airline, said John Fennig, of DRI Consulting in St. Paul. Airlines are ruled by schedules and regulations. Clarity and certainty is extremely important at a company that flies thousands of people around the globe.

"When emotions and conflicts are high, the sense of being one company is lost. That's when war occurs," Fennig said.

Gatto said President Bush's intervention stopped a process that would have had a clear result: Either the union would have gotten a contract or it would have gone on strike, which would have alleviated the stress. The intervention also contributed to a sense of helplessness, said the psychologists, neither of whom is involved in the Northwest situation.

The intervention "put a cork in the tea pot, you sure don't want it to explode," Gatto said. "This explodes only into anger, and that is a danger."

Michelle Bettendorf, the wife of a Northwest 747 mechanic in the Twin Cities, said her husband is disheartened by the amount of tension at work. For half of her 20-year marriage, Northwest mechanics have been at odds with the company over money, she said.

Bettendorf said that lately she has curbed family spending, in one instance cutting out skating lessons for a child, to prepare for a possible strike.

"It's starting to border on people getting depressed," she said.

On the issue of maintenance productivity, Northwest has sued AMFA, alleging an intentional slowdown that would violate the Railway Labor Act. The union has denied the accusation, saying in court that any legitimate decrease in productivity could be blamed on poor morale.

Staff Writer Josephine Marcotty contributed to this report.