Northwest crews halt work

MINNEAPOLIS (CNN) -- Unionized ground crews for Northwest Airlines mounted a brief work stoppage at the airline's Minneapolis hub Wednesday to protest the bankrupt airline's hiring of non-union vendors to clean aircraft, union officials said.

The demonstration involved about 250 people and lasted less than half an hour as union workers circled convoys of baggage carts around gates at one concourse of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The protest - held on one of the busiest travel days of the year - followed a similar walkout Tuesday afternoon.

"Our members have no interest in snarling things up for anybody," said Ken Hooker, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 1833. "We understand how important it is for people to get where they need to go in this busy time."

Northwest (Charts) said its operations in Minneapolis were "running smoothly and normally" Wednesday afternoon.

IAM leaders agreed to let contractors take over the cleaning jobs as part of about $190 million in concessions to Northwest, which filed for bankruptcy in September 2005. Hooker said this week's protest was "one of those last-stand type of things" for his members.

"They want to company to recognize that their hard work has made the company what it has been in the past and hopefully what it can be in the future."

He said workers could mount a similar protest Thursday to show Northwest that it has "a valid and tremendous workforce that needs to be recognized."

Northwest said contractors began work cleaning aircraft at noon, rather than the originally scheduled Dec. 5 transition.

Union workers who had previously been cleaning planes will be shifted into more than 200 job openings Northwest has in its ground operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul, according to the airline.

Union officials at the airline's hub in Detroit said they backed their fellow machinists in Minnesota, but had no plans to stage similar protests.

"We support our brothers there in their actions as far as trying to maintain their work and their people," said Mike Rachfal, an official with IAM Local 141.

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