Business Back In the Air • Northwest's spokesman, and its customers, are breathing a sigh of relief ALAN ABRAMS Special to The Jewish News With any $9.95 or more incoming cleaning order. Not good with other dry cleaning coupons. Expires 11/18/98 is 1.00 OFF! ! CUSTOM: DRY CLEANING With any $7.95 or more incom ng dry cleaning order. Coupon not good with any other dry cleaning coupons. Expires 11/18/98 JN • OFF1 i MEN'S SHIRTS LAUNDERED!, With any $9.95 or more incoming dry cleaning. Not valid with same day service. Men's plain business shirts only. Expires 11/18/98 2 JN • i . .. . . " REPAIR With each incoming shoe repair only. We also do shoe shine service. One coupon per order. Expires 11/18/98 J SUEDE & LEATHER" CLEANING ANE0 iREFINISHING: With each incoming suede or leather garment. One coupon per order. Expires 11/18/98 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."