New York: Shareholders of Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. have voted overwhelming to approve the merger of the two carriers.

The all-stock deal will create the world's largest airline, and will close the book on the 82-year long history of the Northwest name.

98 percent of Northwest investors approved the deal, along with 92 percent investors at Delta. 

The results of the vote were made public at what could be Northwest's final shareholder meeting that was held on Thursday morning in midtown Manhattan. Delta shareholders met on Thursday afternoon close to the company's headquarters at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Union protests
However, the marriage of the two airlines was a bitter pill to swallow for a number of workers at both airlines, who took to staging protests outside the meetings in New York and Atlanta. At New York, workers from two unions representing over 16,000 Northwest employees protested the merger, saying it threatens their jobs and long history of union representation.

Outside the meeting venue at the AXA Equitable Center, close to Times Square, a group of flight attendants, ground workers, gate agents and others employees represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) and International Association of Machinists (IAM) unions faced executives with placards, chants and a giant inflatable rat, a long-time fixture at labour rallies.

Outside the Delta meeting, a group of around 50 members of the machinists union protested, saying that workers had to work long and hard for their right to unionize. They said that with the merger, if the combined group doesn't vote the union in, those rights would be lost.

Countermeasures
However, company leaders working on the merger say job security would not be threatened, and have offered assurances to employees that their seniority would be protected. Seniority governs route assignments and vacation preferences. 

Delta management has set about creating a flight attendant seniority committee that will work with Northwest's AFA union to form a unified list.

The 12,000-plus pilots of both airlines, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, already have a combined contract, and have an arbitrator working out their seniority list.

With shareholder approval out of the way, Northwest and Delta now need to get a clearance from Justice Department antitrust regulators. Experts say that the approval would be forthcoming, since the two airlines have little overlap in their routes.

The combined company will retain Delta's name and Atlanta headquarters, and will operate nine global hubs out of Atlanta, Detroit, New York, Cincinnati, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Salt Lake City, Amsterdam and Tokyo.