Northwest Says It's Prepared For Strike

The airline also said it has about 1,500 former flight attendants ready to report to work in the event current flight attendants refuse to cross the picket lines.

"We started recruiting a long time ago because we wanted the right people. There were a lot of people, and we were able to choose from the very best," said Andrea Newman, Northwest's lobbyist. "These are people who want to work for an airline."

By replacing workers, Northwest is signaling its determination to reduce costs and beat back demands of the mechanics, who are represented by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association.

"Unions right now are on the ropes," said Charles B. Craver, a labor law professor at George Washington University. "This could be a terrible blow to organized labor."

If Northwest replaces its workers, it would follow a similar move by Alaska Airlines in May. In that case, the jobs were ultimately lost. Alaska Airlines eliminated 472 of its baggage-handler jobs to save about $13 million a year after failing to reach a cost-cutting agreement with its union.

Staring down strikers would come with risks for the airline. Labor observers say it is uncertain how travelers would react, particularly in the Midwest, where union sentiment is still strong. Northwest is based just outside Minneapolis and operates its largest hub at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. It also has a major hub in Detroit.

Northwest said it has not seen any evidence of travelers changing bookings to other airlines. But if a strike begins, "people get nervous" when they hear about mechanics walking off the jobs, George Washington University's Craver said.

If travelers flee and send Northwest into a Chapter 11 filing, court protection could provide an opportunity for the airline to demand further cost cuts from workers. United Airlines parent UAL Corp. and US Airways Group Inc. both sought court protection after failing to secure desired savings from workers, and have wrested deeper concessions from workers while in Chapter 11 proceedings.

Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Michael J. Linenberg said he thought it was unlikely that Northwest would back off its cost goal. "We are of the view that the likelihood of a strike is high," Linenberg said in a report.

A Northwest strike would be the first major labor action against a large U.S. airline since 1998, when Northwest's pilots went on strike for nearly three weeks.

The airline has 40,000 workers and is one of the nation's leading international carriers, with a large presence in Amsterdam and Tokyo.

Locally, Northwest has a small presence, with only about 4.8 percent of the flights at Reagan National Airport, 1 percent at Washington Dulles International Airport and 4.25 percent at Baltimore-Washington International Airport.

Steenland has said the airline has lost more than $3.6 billion since 2001. It has spent nearly $7 billion on new aircraft in the past four years.