Northwest strike coming to an end

"I think the strike is over," President Clinton announced at the White House after speaking by phone with leaders from the pilots' union and the company.

Soon after Clinton spoke, spokespeople for the airline and the Air Line Pilots Association confirmed that a proposal to end the standoff would be put to a vote of the union's executive board tomorrow.

No details were released. Northwest's 6,100 pilots will remain on strike until at least Saturday, when the union's 17-member council will meet in Minneapolis to consider the proposal.

The development came as the length of the work-stoppage and its economic cost was increasing the possibility that Clinton would have to intervene and order the pilots back to work.

Bruce Lindsey, one of Clinton's top advisers, had been helping shepherd the talks toward agreement since Tuesday night.

Sources familiar with the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity, said all the major stumbling blocks had been cleared by late afternoon and that the parties were working on details of when the pilots would return to work.

Immediately after Clinton's announcement, about 20 pilots at Detroit Metropolitan Airport were still walking picket lines. Pilot Jerry Fielding, a spokesperson for the pilots' union, said the pickets will continue until the union's executive council meets Saturday to discuss the proposed settlement.

A tentative agreement would not be official until the back-to-work deal was completed and the pilots union's executive council either approved it or sent it out for a vote by the striking pilots.

Nevertheless, the company told mechanics to stop preparing planes for storage and began calling ground workers back from layoff.

Marta Laughlin, spokesperson for the airline, said it will take 10 to 12 days before the airline is back to full service.

The breakthrough came during overnight negotiations, as the National Mediation Board's Maggie Jacobsen kept discussions going until 4 a.m. Thursday.

Room for flexibility was found when the talks in Minneapolis explored stock offers and profit-sharing to address the pilots' compensation demands.

The sources, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the company responded to a "significant offer" from the pilots early yesterday and that discussions continued into the afternoon.

09-11-98