This Week's Airline Strike Brought to You By.....

Northwest Airlines mechanics!

(Editor's note....my daddy was a Northwest mechanic, once upon a time. But that's a story to be shared in another post....)

The union is set to walk out 12:01 Eastern Daylight Time tomorrow if an agreement cannot be reached. Northwest has arranged for approximately 1000 temporary mechanics to take up the slack if a strike is called. The company has also said that if a strike is called, outside vendors will permanently take over line maintenance functions.

Northwest wanted $176 million in concessions from the mechanics, and their union claims the offer submitted to the company provides that. The company says it's really only $100 million in concessions.

The mechanics look like they are on their own on this strike if it happens. The union that represents ground workers, still torked off that the mechanics left in 1998, has said that they will not honor the strike line. (No one bothered to ask the pilots' union, because, well....everyone in the biz knows the pilots never honor other unions' strike lines.)

Traveling could get real interesting soon. Stay tuned!