MINNEAPOLIS —
Pilots at Northwest Airlines Corp. fought hard against pay cuts during the carrier's bankruptcy. And now Northwest is paying their $1.6 million legal bill.
Northwest did not oppose the union's request for the payment, which Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper granted on Tuesday in New York.
Bankruptcy law allows parties to have their fees for attorneys and experts paid if they made a "substantial contribution" to the case.
Northwest had been demanding that its union employees take pay cuts even before it filed for Chapter 11 protection in September 2005. Pilots took an early round of pay cuts, but talks on additional concessions stalled. The members of the Air Line Pilots Association threatened to strike before eventually agreeing to deep pay cuts in 2006.
"If any creditor made a substantial contribution to this case, it was ALPA," the union wrote in asking for payment of its legal fees.
The U.S. Trustee objected, arguing that if pilots were eligible for legal fees, then any party who fights with a debtor will be eligible for legal fees. The trustee had also argued that legal bills submitted by pilots weren't detailed enough. The trustee dropped her objection after receiving more detail on the legal bills, and after the $1.6 million request was reduced by $3,577.
Unions for flight attendants and ground workers also opposed their pay cuts, but they have not asked for the airline to pay their legal bills. Northwest did pay the legal bills of a group of hedge funds that had waged an acrimonious court fight over whether shareholders should receive anything in the airline's reorganization.
Northwest emerged from bankruptcy protection in May.
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