Business
Back In the Air
•
Northwest's spokesman,
and its customers, are
breathing a sigh of relief
ALAN ABRAMS
Special to The Jewish News
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9/18
1998
206 Detroit Jewish News
e
IV
One of those customers who is
smiling again now that the strike is
over is Al Gordon of Gordon's Travel
in Southfield. Although his entire
business was adversely affected an esti-
mated 30 percent by the strike, he was
particularly troubled by the impossi-
bility of getting a patient to the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "Absolutely
no one else flies there but Northwest,"
said Gordon.
The patient, who had been waiting
five months for an appointment with
a Mayo specialist, had to cancel
because there was no alternate way to
travel. The patient is now back on the
specialist's waiting list.
Gordon also encountered major
"but our customers were never incon-
venienced."
David Techner, funeral director for
the Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield,
said the "biggest effect on us was family
members not being able to come in for
funerals. People in California couldn't
come in. Not because they couldn't get
into Detroit, but because they couldn't
get out, particularly over Labor Day.
"That was especially a problem for
people who had kids starting school.
In at least three situations, the family
members could not come in for the
funeral because they wouldn't be back
until Thursday, which necessitated
missing two days of school."
Techner said there were several
ith Northwest Airlines
pilots coming back to
work and the usual con-
gestion returning to
Metro Airport, almost everyone is
happy that things are getting back to
normal after a 15-day strike.
But probably no one in the Detroit
Jewish community could be more
pleased than Andrea Fischer
Newman. Indeed, few were
more affected by the strike.
Newman, who is
Northwest's Detroit-based vice
president for state and -local
affairs, became a familiar face
to local television viewers from
isswe444
her many media interviews
during the strike. But that was
only the most visible part of
her job.
She also had to keep com-
munity and government lead-
ers — the county executive,
the mayor, members of
Congress — informed.
Newman is one of three
senior Northwest people in
Detroit. Her office is in a con-
course in Metro Airport's L.C.
Smith Terminal.
Detroit Metropolitan is one
of three Northwest hubs —
Andrea Fischer Newman is now faced with wooing back Northwest's customers.
the others are at Minneapolis
and Memphis. Northwest
funerals where no relatives at all could
problems getting people in and out of
makes 80 percent of the 630 flights
come into Detroit. And in one case
Europe. "People couldn't get where
daily at Metro. Some 73 percent of
involving a burial in New York, both
they wanted to go. They couldn't get
the 31 million visitors to Metro each
the family and the person who died
to. bar mitzvahs and weddings.
year are either flying in or out on
could only get to LaGuardia from
"If you bought a ticket on another
Northwest. The airport is operated by
Detroit by way of Atlanta.
airline and decided to fly back by
Wayne County, and David Katz, a
"From the minute I heard [a funer-
Northwest
when
the
strike
ended,
you
longtime friend of Newman's, is air-
al]
involved an out-of-town family, I
couldn't
do
it.
The
other
airlines
made
port director.
knew there would be pain," said
their tickets non-refundable," Gordon
One of three daughters of Philip
Techner. "Sometimes we couldn't hold
and Myrna Fischer, now of Bloomfield
said.
a funeral until all the family was able
But if people couldn't find a way
Hills, Newman grew up in
to come in. In one case, a funeral
around the strike, fish could. One of
Birmingham. She graduated from
which
should've been held on Monday
the biggest local purveyors of smoked
Seaholm High School and the
was
held
on Wednesday.
fish is Steven Goldberg, owner of the
University of Michigan, where she
"Our
situation
is emotionally
Stage
Deli
in
West
Bloomfield.
serves on the Board of Regents.
stressed out enough. Getting in and
Goldberg regularly brought smoked
Now that the strike has been set-
out of Detroit for a funeral shouldn't
fish in from New York on Northwest.
tled, Newman still has a major issue to
add any stress. But the stress was that
When the strike started, he simply
deal with: "Customer service is very
you
sometimes had to wonder
switched to another airline.
important to Northwest. We've got to
whether
the deceased would even
"We just worked around it. It took
get the customer back. To that end,
make
it
in
on time," said Techner. 111
a little extra effort," said Goldberg,
there's a lot of work to do."