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The Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal - 9:09 AM CST Friday

NWA pilots agree to interim pay cut

Northwest Airlines Corp.'s pilots union leaders agreed to an interim contract Thursday night under which pilots' pay would drop 23.9 percent.

The rate reduction would come on top of a 15 percent pay cut that pilots accepted late last year.

The proposed cuts would save Eagan-based Northwest (Pink Sheets: NWACQ) roughly $215 million, and buy the pilots more time to negotiate a long-term contract with the airline. Northwest has said it will ask a bankruptcy judge on Nov. 16 to void labor deals with unions that do not agree to interim cuts.

Rank-and-file pilots will begin voting on the proposed pay reductions next week.

The airline's flight attendants' union has also proposed a temporary package of similar pay cuts.