Northwest is trying to get the mechanics to take pay cuts, and its relationship with the union was already strained before this week.
Ted Ludwig, president of the union local that represents Northwest mechanics in the Twin Cities, has suggested before that safety suffers when Northwest hires outside contractors - including some in Singapore - to work on its planes. But his statements Friday, made while about 50 uniformed mechanics stood with him in a hearing room at the state Capitol, were his toughest yet.
''The chances of there being a fatal crash just go up with every takeoff'' of a plane serviced by non-Northwest mechanics, he said.
Ludwig unwrapped a blue shop rag and held up a handful of gray and black metal. He said it was the remains of brakes that malfunctioned on a Northwest Airlines plane that landed last month in Minneapolis.
''The brake exploded, pieces went into the engine,'' Ludwig said. He said the incident was reported to the Federal Aviation Administration.
''If this was a takeoff, we don't know what would have happened,'' Ludwig said. Citing a warning from Northwest, he declined to name the vendor that serviced the brakes.
Northwest didn't comment about the incident Ludwig described, but disputed the idea its planes aren't safe.
''Any suggestion that safety has been compromised at Northwest is false,'' spokesman Thomas Becher said in a written statement. He said safety is the top priority wherever Northwest planes are being serviced, and all programs are under the oversight of the FAA.
Northwest and Local 33 of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association have clashed before over safety. In June, Northwest wrote to the union in advance of a planned informational picket that mechanics would be fired if they disparaged the ''safety, security or quality of Northwest's operations.''
The airline repeated that message this week.
''Any suggestion that safety has been compromised at Northwest is both false and highly damaging to Northwest's business,'' Vice President for Labor Relations Julie Hagen Showers wrote to Ludwig on Thursday. ''... Any further disparagement of the safety, security, or quality of Northwest's operations, would constitute a violation'' of Northwest rules of conduct, and would ''subject any Northwest employee responsible for that conduct to discipline up to and including discharge.''
Ludwig said he is at risk for being laid off anyway.
''It's our duty to talk about this, whether we risk termination or not. The flying public needs to know,'' he said.
Ludwig added that his point wasn't to discourage travelers from flying on Northwest, but to let them know that the carrier was using maintenance contractors that he said were doing questionable work.
Like most carriers, Northwest is struggling with soaring fuel prices. On Wednesday it said it will reduce its fleet by 30 planes this year, parking mostly DC-9s and closing a heavy maintenance line in the Twin Cities that services the older planes.
It said it would cut 130 mechanic jobs by May, and up to 930 by the end of the year. Union officials said Northwest has already reduced its Twin Cities mechanics ranks from 5,300 in early 2001 to about 3,150 now.
Mechanics who lose their job in one location can transfer to another Northwest facility, displacing someone there with less seniority. Joe Wagner said that's the decision he'll face now - whether to uproot his family from the Twin Cities, where they've lived since 1990, or lose his job.
''Fifteen years of seniority and it looks like it's all going to end,'' he said.
The layoffs come just as Northwest is seeking a long-term expansion of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport that would hand all the gates at the main terminal to Northwest and its airline partners, sending competitors to a less desirable terminal. The plan incensed mechanics because it assumed the demolition of some maintenance hangars.
Northwest Airlines shares fell 10 cents, or 1.5 percent, to close at $6.71 Friday on the Nasdaq Stock Market.
