NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - Lawyers for Northwest Airlines and its flight attendants union were due to face off in bankruptcy court Friday over whether management at the nation's No. 5 airline can impose a contract rejected by 80 percent of the union's members.

The Eagan, Minn.-based carrier will try to convince the judge overseeing its bankruptcy case to throw out its labor contract with the 9,000-member Professional Flight Attendants Association (PFAA).

An airline expert does not expect flight attendants to ground Northwest Airlines with a strike.

Such a ruling would open the door for the airline to institute $195 million in cost cuts included in a tentative agreement reached with union leadership March 1, but rejected by members in a ratification vote concluded this week. The savings came from changes in wages, benefits and work rules.

"We reached a consensual agreement with the union's negotiating committee whom the flight attendants chose to represent them. Importantly, that agreement held out the best hope for preserving flight attendant jobs," said a statement by Mike Becker, senior vice president of human resources and labor relations, after the vote was announced.

A decision on the request to dump the current labor deal is not expected today, according to a staff member in the chambers of Federal Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper. The hearing will be held in chambers with attorneys from the two sides and without the public. The airline has asked for a quick decision from the judge.

The airline has another hearing scheduled for Tuesday on its motion for a preliminary injunction against the union going out on strike.

Union officials and spokesmen did not return calls Friday. While the union has not explicitly authorized a strike, although a statement from the union after the vote the union leadership warned "if Northwest Airline modifies our contract, with or without court approval, PFAA will seek to implement its full legal rights to self help guaranteed under law." The term "self help" in airline labor law can include going on strike, but it can also include other job actions.

In August, the airline's mechanics union waged a legal strike against the airline, with disastrous results for the members of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association. The airline kept flying through the use of outside contractors and replacement workers, and union members lost their jobs.

Airline consultant Michael Boyd of Evergreen, Colo., said he doesn't believe that the flight attendants will go on strike, partly because he said he thinks many flight attendants would cross a picket line rather than risk losing jobs.

"An airline can fly through a flight attendant strike," he said.

Northwest spokesman Kurt Ebenhoch would not say if the airline is prepared to continue to fly if the flight attendants walk, only that it is prepared to fight in court to keep them on the job.

"We believe a strike by our flight attendants would be illegal. This is a very different situation from the one with the mechanics," he said.

But Boyd and airline labor law experts say that case law is not clear whether an airline union is allowed to go on strike if a bankruptcy court voids a contract.

Boyd said that the current union leadership is too weak to lead a strike, and he doesn't think there's any risk of a wildcat strike by rank and file. He points out that membership of the union started a new vote Thursday that runs through July 1 on whether to stay with the independent PFAA or be represented by the larger Association of Flight Attendants, a unit of the CWA that represents 46,000 workers at 20 different airlines.

"That 80 percent no vote is a vote of no confidence in the current union," said Boyd. "For Northwest, going back to the bargaining table is a waste of time because the company would be bargaining with a lame duck union. They're as good as gone already."

The airline got one piece of labor peace Friday when 62 percent of rank and file members of the International Association of Machinists, which represents Northwest's equipment service and stock clerk employees, ratified a new contract that should save $190 million a year.

Related: Northwest mechanics strike a possible body blow for unions.