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Northwest Airlines - Labor Unrest

Northwest Airlines • Ticketing snafus • Luggage lost, stolen, destroyed • General hostility • Disgruntled Employees • Northwest vs. KLM • Pray for food --- News • Delta, Northwest Complete Merger • Delta, Northwest Merger Faces Heavy Chop • Troubled Northwest Strikes New Deal With Pilots • A Seething Summer of Discontent for Northwest Airlines • Northwest Passengers Face Uncertain Summer • Pilot Shortages Plague Northwest Passengers • Machinists Pact May Head Off Northwest Airline Strike • Northwest Hopes to Cancel Employee Contracts • Delta, Northwest File for Bankruptcy • Northwest Flying Despite Strike • Northwest Warns Of Bankruptcy • Strike Looms At Northwest • Northwest Seeks Replacement Flight Attendants • Northwest Pushes Up Fares

I flew from DC into Detroit to catch a connecting flight to Madison. This first leg was uneventful...the staff gave me a seat close to the restroom where I could extend (but not elevate) my broken foot. A skycap was requested, and this is where the story starts. The young man pushing my wheelchair immediately started complaining about how terrible his job was, how little it paid, how badly he was treated, and how he resented having to push people from gate to gate. His most memorable statement was that sometimes "he even had to push fat people uphill." I remarked that at least he didn't have a broken leg, and he didn't say anything more.

Given my circumstances and the fact that I had to make it home to have surgery first thing the next morning, my travel agent tried to get me put on a list of stand-bys for an earlier flight to Madison. The ticket agent seemed extremely agitated, and was short and rude with almost everyone who inquired whether or not they could get an earlier flight. I sat near the gate counter for about a half an hour, then realized that this particular employee was not going to come over to me to help, so I wheeled myself over. This was difficult because I was juggling my crutches and trying to keep them from falling. When I asked what my chances were for catching an earlier flight (one that had been requested 3 hours earlier by the agent in DC) the agent rudely informed me that there wasn't a chance in hell of me getting an earlier flight. When I didn't roll away he snapped, "do you need something else?" I said no and rolled myself away.

Since my other flight was not scheduled to leave for another couple hours, I decided to wait at that gate before looking at the monitor, given that the gates were changing at a dizzying pace. I struck up a conversation with a nice traveler who took it upon himself to request assistance for me when I decided to go to my gate. He had to ask the rude employee several times before a skycap showed up to take me to my gate, which happened to be clear on the other side of the terminal. This skycap turned out to be an amiable Asian boy - the nicest employee I encountered in Detroit all day. While waiting at the gate, it was announced that the gate was changing yet again. No NW employee offered to help me to get to the latest gate, so another passenger (a stranger to me) saw my predicament and pushed me to the new gate.

His comment was that the airline industry had reached a new low of complete ineptitude, and that is was due for a complete crash. But I digress. Now comes the unbelievable part.

The plane was announced as on-time, and I was helped to a seat near the bulkhead. An elderly man with one leg was seated next to me, and we joked together about our infirmities. Then the plane didn't take off, and didn't take off, and it soon came to our attention that a non-official work slow-down by the mechanics was underway. They were not going to let the plane go until they were damn well ready.

There was a passenger who needed to get home ASAP because his house in Stoughton had just been destroyed by a tornado. The mechanics didn't care at all that this man was desperate to get home to his family or that I was injured and needed to get home to obtain medical care...they delayed every plane that night. The pilots and flight attendants were so caught up in the mechanic's drama that they could hardly be bothered to attend to passengers, except to ply the first classers with free booze. One business man who sat near me requested that the pilot address the captive passengers. He was told by the flight attendant that the announcement would come when the pilot was ready.

Another came by and told him that if he didn't like the service, he should have booked "a private jet." She said this several times. Later an attendant came over to the man and told him to shut up or she would would have him taken off the plane. This man was not loud or profane - he was just wanting to be informed as to what was going on. The mechanics held up the plane for over an hour and a half.

The elderly amputee next to me had not flown in over ten years, and he was afraid that his daughter, who was waiting for him in Madison, would have to leave because she had to be to work at 4:30 am in a town 100 miles north of the airport. I did my best to comfort the man, and called my husband to ask him to look out for this woman and explain our situation, since the man did not own a cell phone.

Finally the plane took off and arrived in Madison around midnight. I waited for all passengers to disembark, and then asked for my crutches. The attendants said they didn't know where they were. Eventually a third attendant remembered where she had placed them, and gave them to me. I asked if someone would wheel me to the baggage claim, where my husband would be waiting, and they said yes.

Then the attendants and pilots all busied themselves in gossiping about their current pre-strike situation. I exited the aircraft on my crutches, and was dismayed to find that there was no skycap or employee there to wheel me. I was so disgusted and so eager to get away from these people that I decided to call my husband to come and help me. Of course security would not allow him to come help me!

Thank God the Madison airport is small, because I had to drag myself down the entire gateway, and down an escalator before my husband could reach me. The NW pilots and attendants walked right past me without a word.

I just want others to know what can happen when traveling, especially when traveling with Northwest airlines.

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