Lurking over the showdown between Northwest Airlines and its maintenance workers is a sense among some labor activists that this is not a routine contract dispute.

Striking custodian Karen White is among those who fear that if Northwest prevails, unions everywhere will feel repercussions.

"If they break our union, every other big company in the U.S. is going to try this," she said.

"Their pattern of bargaining is being studied by other employers," said Ray Waldron, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO, "and will be picked up by other employers if it succeeds."

Ghosts of PATCO
At a solidarity rally at the Capitol more than a week before the strike, Kip Hedges, a ramp worker for Northwest and a past president of Machinists Local 1833 in the Twin Cities, labeled the showdown "a Gettysburg for labor."

Other speakers made references to President Ronald Reagan's firing of striking air traffic controllers in 1981, which unleashed decades of anti-union conduct by employers in the private and public sectors.

"This is a stand labor needs to take," said Jaye Rykunyk, president of UNITE HERE Local 17, which represents food service employees at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

Calling Northwest "one of the most extraordinarily greedy and unprincipled companies we've ever seen," Rykunyk said unions cannot risk being perceived as siding with Northwest management.

Issues in common
"This is an opportunity for other unions to show they believe in something ? a set of values and a vision ? that goes beyond organizational loyalties," said Peter Rachleff, a labor history professor at Macalester College in St. Paul.

Mechanics, Rachleff said, are fighting "the race to the bottom." The issues in the dispute ? including outsourcing, shifting jobs overseas, substantial wage cuts, and the potential loss of pensions ? "touch virtually all workers and union members."

"It goes beyond other airline workers," he said. "GM, Ford, Delphi workers, even public employees, are all facing this. These issues are important to everybody."

Rachleff called it "fascinatingly ironic" that the mechanics' strike coincides with the 20th anniversary of the UFCW Local P-9 strike against Hormel in Austin, Minn.

In 1985, he said, the labor movement had an opportunity to stand with workers determined to fight unwarranted concessions. "A substantial portion of the labor movement chose not to," he said. That left P-9 members "vulnerable and ultimately defeated."

Rachleff says he's not sure whether the mechanics can disrupt Northwest operations enough on their own to make a difference. If other unions don't honor picket lines, it may take additional tactics ? flight attendants calling in sick, pilots requesting safety checks, even support from airline workers in Europe ? to tip the balance, he said.

"There's a role for consumers to play, too. If we refuse to fly Northwest, that will have an impact, also. If we believe their financial crisis, that they're bleeding cash, that they're on the brink of bankruptcy, how long can they hold out?"

Adapted from The Union Advocate, the official newspaper of the St. Paul Trades and Labor Assembly. E-mail The Advocate at: advocate@mtn.org