MINNEAPOLIS -- If Northwest Airlines' pilots march off the job Friday night, thousands of the company's other workers will probably be laid off. But Northwest has sent letters to all non-pilot workers in recent days saying they are expected to "be available and on-call" and "may be subject to termination" if they do not report to work upon request.

Employees who are required to go to work and fail to do so will be "placed off-payroll" the letter said. Such employees would be considered to be on an illegal sympathy strike, said A Northwest spokeswoman, and would lose unemployment and insurance benefits.

The Northwest Airlines pilot's strike headquarters went into 24-hour mode Tuesday.

Officially, leaders of the airline's two other big unions, Teamsters Local 2000 and the International Association of Machinists (IAM), aren't saying what they will do if the pilots strike. Under the terms of their contracts, they are not allowed to conduct sympathy strikes.

So far, the Air Line Pilots Association has not formally asked the other unions to honor its picket lines. "We don't know what kind of action the pilots will request," said Don Mayer, spokesman for IAM District 143. "They haven't made a request at this time, and probably won't until the eleventh hour."

If the pilots request a sympathy strike, the IAM and Teamsters might have to decide whether to violate their contracts. In that case Northwest could go to court to stop the sympathy strike, and could fire striking employees.

Since a pilot strike would virtually shut down the airline, however, it's doubtful the pilots will ask other unions to honor the picket line, said Sid Rhinehart, public affairs chairman for Transport Workers Union Local 543, which represents dispatchers. "It will probably be a moot point," Rhinehart said. "The indication we are getting from management is there will be a system shutdown, and dispatchers and others will be laid off as well."

MINNEAPOLIS -- Northwest Airlines will not accept freight shipments after Wednesday night if it has not reached a contract settlement with its pilots by that time.

The pilots have threatened to strike at 12:01 a.m. Saturday.

Eric Steinwinder, a spokesman for Northwest Cargo, said the move was designed "to protect our customers' interests."

A prolonged strike, coming at the start of the peak season, could cause serious problems with air cargo shipments from Asia. Northwest operates a fleet of 747 freighters in the trans-Pacific market.

"They're a very big player. We certainly hope they don't go out," said Barry Richard, director of pricing for Expeditors International of Washington, a large Seattle forwarder.

A strike would not do nearly as much damage on shipments to Asia. There is sufficient capacity in the westbound market because of the slump in U.S. exports resulting from the Asian financial crisis. The peak season in air cargo, driven by imports of consumer merchandise destined for retailers' shelves, usually runs from the beginning of September through early December.

PHILADELPHIA -- Two Amtrak employees injured during a shooting at the Wilmington maintenance yard will not go to court. Attorneys for the workers and Amtrak settled the lawsuit yesterday in Philadelphia Federal Court.

The workers, John Fedora and John Morrison, were injured in April 1997 when machinist Richard Herr opened fire. One worker was killed in the incident. Lawyers for the workers claim Amtrak knew Herr was unstable.

PEORIA, Ill. -- Pioneer Railcorp today reported increases in net income, earnings per share and revenues for the six months period ended June 30, 1998.

Net income rose 10% to $446,457 or 10 cents per share compared to $405,262 or 7 cents per share last year. Operating revenues for the six-month period were up 9% to $6,890,265 versus $6,323,230 in 1997.

Four of Pioneer's shortline freight subsidiaries were leaders in contributing to the six-month revenue increase. They included Pioneer Railroad Equipment Co. which was up $440,000 to $1,352,000; Keokuk Junction Railway Co. with an increase of $118,000 reaching $1,663,000; Rochelle Railroad Co. rising $136,000 to $339,000; Michigan Southern Railroad Co. which had increased operating revenues of $98,000 to record a total of $568,000.

Pioneer Railroad Equipment and Rochelle were also principal contributors to the six-month net income increases. They were joined by two other Pioneer subsidiaries, Alabama Railroad Company and Decatur Junction Railway Co. Second quarter operating revenues were $3,653,418 compared with $3,509,995 in the same period last year. Net income was $272,089 or 6 cents per share versus $335,036 or 7 cents per share in 1997.

Pioneer Railcorp is in its 12th year as a shortline holding company operating in nine states with over 500 miles of track. The company has sales of $12.8 million in fiscal 1997 and has assets of $25 million.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- The Mayo Clinic has joined a grass-roots coalition calling for a more detailed study of the impacts of a proposed rail line extension into Wyoming's Powder River Basin. The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research in Rochester, Minn., on Friday joined the Mid-States Coalition for Progress in the group's efforts to push for a thorough study of the proposal.

The Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad’s $1.4 billion project would move coal from Wyoming, across South Dakota, and on to the Mississippi River in southern Minnesota. It involves upgrading existing track, adding 262 miles of new track in Wyoming, and adding a couple of segments in Minnesota.

DM&E President Kevin Schieffer has said the rail line extension would create 3,149 permanent jobs in Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota and provide $55 million in construction taxes to the three states.

Only three low-speed trains currently travel the DM&E line as the clinic. But clinic officials say the upgrade would enable up to 40 trains traveling at a higher speed to use the tracks to bring coal to Midwestern and Eastern power plants. Significantly increasing the speed, number and cargo of trains on the rail line will have substantial impact on Mayo Clinic, clinic spokesman Tim Geisler said in a release.

The clinic serves 240,000 patients and accommodates more than 1.5 million outpatient visits each year, Geisler said. Among the concerns cited by clinic officials were diminished air quality for the more than 40,000 patients who go there seeking treatment for respiratory or pulmonary disease, and rail congestion interfering with emergency treatment.

The Wyoming chairwoman of the Mid-States Coalition, Nancy Darnell, said the clinic's involvement is welcomed. "We've known for some time that Mayo was very concerned about the whole project and that they had met with Kevin Schieffer in an attempt to iron out difficulties without having to resort to legal assistance... but now they've joined us to see that our arguments are heard at the federal level," she said.

The coalition is comprised of land owners and other concerned residents in Wyoming, South Dakota and Minnesota who live and work along the existing and proposed DM&E railroad line.

TORONTO -- St. Lawrence & Hudson Railway (StL&H) level crossings in Ontario and Quebec will soon display emergency telephone and identification numbers as the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) expands efforts to enhance public safety at crossings in Canada and the United States through its new Safe Passage program.

"Designed to provide members of the public with toll-free access to the Canadian Pacific Railway Police Service 24-hour control center in Montreal, Safe Passage will enable motorists, cyclists or pedestrians to contact us immediately should a dangerous situation occur at any crossing,'' said Gerry Moody, Chief of the railway's police force.

Yellow stickers bearing 1-800 telephone numbers and identification numbers unique to each location are being prepared for application to existing warning signals and signs at StL&H crossings in Quebec and Ontario beginning this summer. The Montreal-based StL&H is a subsidiary of the CPR.

The railway plans to have emergency numbers posted at all of its approximately 20,000 public crossings in Canada and the United States by the end of 1999, said Chief Moody. Initial cost of the Safe Passage program is estimated at about $C450,000.

"Most of us have wondered what we would do if our car were to break down on the track at a level crossing,'' said Moody. "In these days of widespread cellular phone use, you would have a number to call immediately after you get out of the vehicle and off the crossing.''

More commonplace are cases of unsafe behavior by crossing users, said Moody, who points out that railway police have full authority to warn, ticket or arrest anyone who violates the applicable laws and regulations. Observers of such behavior are encouraged to use the number to report violations, he said.

The system can also be used to report damaged or malfunctioning crossing warning devices, or any other unsafe condition. Callers need only cite the unique crossing number to identify the crossing location.

The emergency telephone number to be posted at all crossings is 1-800-716-9132.

Calgary-based CPR, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Limited, operates about 25,500 km (15,800 miles) of track in Canada and the United States, and has about 20,000 employees. Its Website address is www.cpr.ca

AMSTERDAM -- An Amsterdam judge ruled Wednesday that KLM Royal Dutch Airlines NV (KLM) pilots can't strike on the Amsterdam-Minneapolis route in solidarity with their colleagues at Northwest Airlines (NWAC) if the latter decide to go on strike.

The association of Dutch pilots had called on the KLM pilots to go on strike on the route if Northwest pilots decide to take industrial action Aug. 29.

KLM and Northwest have a strategic and operational alliance. Northwest pilots have been negotiating over salaries for two years without result, and the pilots of the U.S. carrier have threatened to go on strike Saturday if no agreement is reached.

Northwest operates two daily flights between Amsterdam and Minneapolis and KLM has one daily flight on the route.

Although the judge has forbidden KLM pilots to go on strike, he also ruled that KLM couldn’t ask its pilots to take over the two Northwest flights to the U.S. city, even though the Dutch carrier has sold tickets to Dutch passengers for the two flights.

The Dutch pilots' association said that while one of the reasons for the planned strike had been solidarity action with their colleagues at Northwest, another was concern over employment prospects in the Netherlands.

MONTREAL -- Air Canada confirmed that it and the Air Canada Pilots Association have agreed to resume negotiations on Thursday, using an outside mediator.

As reported, the parties were released from conciliation and the pilots will be in a legal strike position at midnight on Sept. 1.

Air Canada said it is confident that a negotiated agreement can be reached. "However, in order to minimize inconvenience to customers in the event of a pilot strike, effective today Air Canada is waiving change fees on tickets purchased for travel between Sept. 2-6, to facilitate customers changing their travel plans. If necessary, these dates will be extended."

LONDON - Ten percent of the world's tree species face extinction through felling, forest fires and poor forest management, conservationists said in a report on Tuesday.

"With 77 species already extinct, this report has now confirmed our worst nightmare," Dr Steve Howard of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said in a statement. The "World List of Threatened Trees" details more than 8,753 of the world's 80,000 to 100,000 tree species as being in danger of extinction.

The list is the product of a three-year project by the World Conservation Monitoring Center, partly financed by the WWF, and the Species Survival Commission of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), according to the Reuters report. Mr. Howard called on governments meeting in Geneva this week for the Intergovernmental Forum on Forests to act quickly to save the trees. "The governments gathering this week must now realize the sense of urgency to increase forest protection, eliminate illegal logging and improve forest management," Mr. Howard said.