NORTHWEST AIRLINES, the American carrier, is trying to outsource cabin attendant jobs on its overseas flights, in a move that unions fear will lead to job cuts.

Unions are worried that the company, which filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States last month, is becoming a “virtual airline”, with many of its jobs outsourced to nonunionised labour. The airline is also trying to outsource the jobs of pilots and ground staff.

Northwest has said that it will ask the bankruptcy court on November 16 to cancel its contracts with its workforce unless the unions agree to sharp cutbacks in pay and conditions.

The carrier wants 75 per cent of its flight attendants on long-haul flights across the Pacific and Atlantic to be sourced from the cheapest transit point, as well as flights between Amsterdam and India.

By outsourcing flight attendants, the airline is attempting to make cost savings of $195 million (£109 million) a year until 2010.

Unions are worried that if Northwest is able to push ahead with its plans, other airlines will follow suit.

Pat Friend, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, said: “The situation at Northwest is potentially devastating to all flight attendants across the country.” In a letter to another airline union, Ms Friend said: “One thing we have learnt during this financial crisis in our industry is that proposals like this spread from carrier to carrier like the most virulent disease mankind has ever experienced.”

A spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association (Alpa) at Northwest said: “They have staked out a really extreme position. Whenever they negotiate, they tend to overreach. This is completely outside the box of what other carriers have or have asked for.”

The spokesman said that Alpa had offered to cut its costs for regional flights, but the union was worried that Northwest would spin off or sell its regional operations.

Northwest declined to comment on its proposals to cut costs.

A number of the America’s largest airlines, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, employ foreign nationals as flight attendants, but the practice is not widespread.

Northwest last clashed with its unions in August, when the airline brought in replacement workers to break a strike by mechanics and cleaners. The carrier hired some of the replacement workers on worse terms than existing staff and outsourced a large part of those operations.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive