Big_Dave
August 19th, 2005, 00:49
By JOSHUA FREED
AP Business Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Shares in Northwest Airlines Corp. surged nearly 10 percent on Thursday, even as talks aimed at averting a mechanics strike showed no outward signs of progress.
Northwest shares got a boost from an analyst's upgrade and word that a Connecticut investor bought 6 percent of the nation's fourth-largest airline. They closed at $5.48, up 48 cents, or 9.6 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The carrier's shares are up 38 percent since Monday, when they traded below $4.
Northwest and its mechanics are negotiating in Washington as they seek a deal before a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday.
Late Thursday, union leaders expressed pessimism about reaching an agreement.
"This evening Northwest Airlines proposed what they term as their last best offer. This offer reflects Northwest Airlines' consistent extreme position and leaves us with little hope of reaching a deal before tomorrow evening's strike deadline," said Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.
In a note to investors, Bear Stearns analyst David Strine wrote that he believes there's a 55 percent chance Northwest mechanics will strike. Airline management has vowed to fly anyway, and has lined up replacement mechanics.
Strine believes them. "We think management can pull it off," he wrote in the note.
Also Thursday, the union local that represents 2,700 Northwest ground workers in Detroit said it would not honor the mechanics' picket lines if there's a strike. "We'll be at work," said Stephen Gordon, president of Local 141 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Relations between the two unions have been poor. The Machinists used to represent nearly all Northwest ground workers. But in 1998, the mechanics, custodians and cleaners voted to break away and join AMFA.
It ain't gonna be pretty.
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S9969.html?cat=1
AP Business Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Shares in Northwest Airlines Corp. surged nearly 10 percent on Thursday, even as talks aimed at averting a mechanics strike showed no outward signs of progress.
Northwest shares got a boost from an analyst's upgrade and word that a Connecticut investor bought 6 percent of the nation's fourth-largest airline. They closed at $5.48, up 48 cents, or 9.6 percent, on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
The carrier's shares are up 38 percent since Monday, when they traded below $4.
Northwest and its mechanics are negotiating in Washington as they seek a deal before a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. EDT on Saturday.
Late Thursday, union leaders expressed pessimism about reaching an agreement.
"This evening Northwest Airlines proposed what they term as their last best offer. This offer reflects Northwest Airlines' consistent extreme position and leaves us with little hope of reaching a deal before tomorrow evening's strike deadline," said Steve MacFarlane, assistant national director of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.
In a note to investors, Bear Stearns analyst David Strine wrote that he believes there's a 55 percent chance Northwest mechanics will strike. Airline management has vowed to fly anyway, and has lined up replacement mechanics.
Strine believes them. "We think management can pull it off," he wrote in the note.
Also Thursday, the union local that represents 2,700 Northwest ground workers in Detroit said it would not honor the mechanics' picket lines if there's a strike. "We'll be at work," said Stephen Gordon, president of Local 141 of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. Relations between the two unions have been poor. The Machinists used to represent nearly all Northwest ground workers. But in 1998, the mechanics, custodians and cleaners voted to break away and join AMFA.
It ain't gonna be pretty.
http://www.kstp.com/article/stories/S9969.html?cat=1