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NWA, union resume talks
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September 8, 1998: 6:27 p.m. ET
Clinton sends representatives to both sides to help move negotiations along
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - With discussions to resolve the Northwest Airlines labor dispute yielding seemingly little real progress, President Clinton said Tuesday he will send representatives to talk to both sides.
In the hope of moving the negotiations forward, Clinton said he had dispatched Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and Deputy White House Consel Bruce Lindsey to assess the air strike and determine whether the Clinton administration can do anything to help the parties reach a settlement.
Meanwhile, Northwest and the Air Line Pilots Association reopened discussions in Minneapolis - the airline's corporate headquarters - although the talks were not face to face.
Clinton had previously declined formal intervention in the strike, in which he could order a 60-day cooling-off period. The president also has the authority to order striking employees back to work if the regional or national economic stability is threatened.
North Dakota's senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, already have spoken to Clinton about the impact of the strike on the state, urging him to intervene.
Northwest is the only major airline serving North Dakota. Two of the state's three largest cities, Grand Forks and Minot, have no air service at all during the strike.
White House spokeswoman Amy Weiss Tobe said Clinton told North Dakota's congressional delegation that he hopes the strike can be resolved without formal intervention.
Northwest Airlines has canceled all flights through Thursday, and all incoming flights from Europe and Asia through Saturday.
Nearly 28,000 of the carrier's 50,000 employees have been put on temporary leave since the strike began Aug. 28.
The two sides are at odds over pay raises and benefits. The pilots say they gave up industry-leading concessions in 1993 to help the airline avert a bankruptcy. Now that the carrier's balance sheet is back on track, they say it's time for them to be rewarded with industry-leading pay raises.
Northwest says it is still not financially stable enough to pay its pilots more than its competitors.
Shares of Northwest Airlines (NWAC) closed up 1-5/8 at 28-1/8 on the Nasdaq. 
-- from staff and wire reports
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