Northwest Offers Relief Package To 5,500 Furloughed Contract Employees

Northwest Airlines today announced that it will provide a relief package – including pay, medical coverage and flight privileges -- to approximately 5,500 furloughed contract employees who are affected by the staff reductions announced last week.

Furloughed employees eligible for the relief pay – who are from all contract work groups – are those whose contractual rights did not allow them to take another job in the Northwest Airlines system. Northwest reduced its contract payroll by an additional 3,500 positions through attrition, voluntary leaves, eliminating open positions, and other job losses.

The relief package provides between one and six week’s base pay, determined by years of service with the company. In addition, the package includes extended medical coverage and full travel privileges through December 31, 2001.

Richard Anderson, Northwest Chief Executive Officer, said, “After announcing our staff reductions last week, we continued to review our plan and have determined that this special relief package is appropriate to assist our employees who, under the current staffing reductions, have unexpectedly lost their positions at Northwest Airlines. We hope this will help them during this difficult period. Like other contract employees, these workers retain recall rights, entitling them to return to Northwest when the airline recovers.”

The airline said that management employees whose positions will be eliminated also will receive relief packages.