Striking flight attendants to be locked out

MILWAUKEE -- Midwest Express flight attendants will be locked out if they walk off their jobs as threatened, an airline attorney says.

Carol Skornicka, senior vice president and general counsel for Midwest Express, said the airline has filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, contending the walkouts would not be protected under federal labor laws.

Flight attendants who strike will not be allowed to return to work until the contract dispute is over, she said.

Union spokesman Jeff Zack said the union's 440 flight attendants planned to disrupt flights by walking off them before they depart and then returning to work later on another flight. The union calls the strategy CHAOS, for "create havoc around our system."

No flight attendants had walked out as of Saturday morning, union spokeswoman Dawn Deeks said. She declined to say when or where walkouts might happen.

"At the end of the day, a strike will happen at Midwest Express despite this lawsuit," Zack said. A 1993 federal court ruling in Seattle found intermittent strikes in the airline industry to be legal.

Midwest Express said it would rely on about 60 managers stationed around the country to take over flight attendants' duties as needed.

The average annual salary for a Midwest Express flight attendant is in the low $20,000 range and reaches $36,000 after 16 years of service.

In the latest contract talks, the airline agreed to changes in scheduling and per diem expenses that would result in 5 percent to 6 percent increases in take-home pay, Skornicka said.

The union had asked for a 9.5 percent raise immediately, she said. Zack said the union would resume talks if had reason to believe the airline had changed its stance on contract terms.

Midwest Express, based in suburban Milwaukee, flies to 51 cities with its subsidiary, Skyway Airlines, which was not affected by the dispute.

The Midwest Express flight attendants voted to form a union in April 1999 and started negotiating their first contract in early 2000.