It looks like the numbers that Northwest Airlines gave to the bankruptcy judge were off by just a little bit. Say 300 million dollars off. In trying to get greater concessions from their employees, they failed to include the savings they got from temporary pay cuts by employees.

Now I am not the most pro union advocate, in fact I oppose most forms of unionization. But when management lies and deceives a federal court, the unions have some very valid points.

David Davis, the company’s senior vice president for finance, also testified that Northwest ended 2005 with about $300 million more in cash than the company had forecast in October, when it spelled out cost-cutting demands to its unions totaling $1.4 billion.
Northwest has asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper to throw out its labor contracts, saying the company needs deep cuts in jobs, wages and benefits for its union workers to survive.
Davis said the estimates did not include temporary concessions Northwest won from its unions last year because the company assumed it would either prevail in court or the temporary concessions would end after February. Northwest’s attorneys said later the company had no guarantee that the unions would extend the temporary cuts beyond February. via Detroit Free Press.