This is probably one of the most significant developments in management-labor relations.

And as for the charge that unions are bad for business, has anyone noticed that Southwest, one of the few airlines still making money, without layoffs, is also the airline with such famously good management-labor relations?

For many decades, he devoted his energy and ability to the advancement of the interests of all association members and of the entire apparel industry and to the maintenance of harmonious management-labor relations.

"Their rescue was the deepest," said Joseph R. Blasi, a professor of management-labor relations at Rutgers University.

Kevin C. Murphy, an airline analyst at Morgan Stanley, said he believed that productive management-labor relations at Northwest in recent years would continue to protect the gains reflected in Northwest's stock price.

"The relationship between the Mayor and the unions is one that it has always been, one which is typical for management-labor relations," Mr. Levine said in a telephone interview yesterday.

And that is not bluster, said Joseph R. Blasi, a professor of management-labor relations at Rutgers University who has studied many airline labor disputes.

The situation, which resulted from a misjudgment by the union representing technicians, is a lesson in television's changing management-labor relations.

"There is no question that there are many traditional work rules in the airline industry that need serious examination," said Joseph R. Blasi, a professor of management-labor relations at Rutgers University.

Donald J. Carty, Mr. Crandall's successor, began his tenure pledging to improve management-labor relations and make American a happier place to work.