Northwest seeks
Clinton’s help

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

Northwest Airlines Corp., facing a strike that could start next Friday, wants Hawaii's business and political leaders to push President Clinton to set up an emergency board that would stop the strike.

"We don't want them to step in and take sides, or view the company in any more of a fair light than they view the pilots," Donald J. Foley, Northwest's vice president for worldwide corporate communications, said in an interview.

But he said Northwest believes presidential intervention could avert significant harm to Hawaii's economy that could start by the middle of next week as the airline starts cutting back flights to prepare for a nationwide shutdown scheduled for Aug. 28, 6:01 p.m. Hawaii time.

A spokesman for the pilots' union said the presidential board proposal is just one of several ways the airline is using to try to avoid bargaining in good faith.

"If you're pushing for an emergency board, you're pushing for a strike. You've got to have one before you get the other," said Paul Omodt, a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association representing the 6,000 Northwest pilots.

The two sides have been back at the bargaining table since Monday and Foley said presidential intervention could keep those talks going.

Foley led a team of Northwest executives who met Wednesday with Gov. Ben Caye-tano, the leadership of the state House and Senate, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Hawaii Hotel Association, the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, and executives of Bank of Hawaii and First Hawaiian Bank.

He said the intent was to tell them how serious a strike could be for Hawaii's economy and to assure them that the airline wants to avoid one.

Foley said Northwest carries 20 percent of the Asian traffic to Hawaii and 10 percent of the traffic from the mainland.

The airline will have to begin closing down several days before the strike deadline, he said, since it won't risk having its aircraft and crews stuck away from home.

And he disputed the notion that passengers who can't take Northwest flights will simply transfer to other airlines.

All airlines manage their seat capacity tightly these days and there just won't be that many seats available, he said.

ALPA said Northwest is apparently blind to the fact that there are plenty of empty airline seats these days, particularly the excess capacity in Asia, and airlines will be happy to jump in and pick up Northwest's business.

A report by the state Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism said that in the worst-case situation, Hawaii would lose 2,500 visitors a day, worth $2.54 million a day in overall spending in the state.

But Rick Egged, DBEDT deputy director, said that is only if none of Northwest's passengers find other ways to travel.

Egged said he believes that most will find alternative seats although there might be a crunch for the first few days.