Travelers expecting to fly on Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) had another tough couple of days this past weekend. The company has been plagued recently by an insufficient pilot workforce, which forced the airline to cancel hundreds of planned flights over the weekend.

The official line coming out of the company is that flights were forced to be canceled as a result of "significant spikes" in pilot absenteeism, but has been very careful not to come straight out and accuse the pilots of an illegal job action. Northwest emerged from bankruptcy a couple months ago, and during the course of its bankruptcy procedures was able to win concessionary labor contracts. This, obviously, has not gone over too well with its workforce, and could be part of the problem that has led to the "spike in absenteeism."

This train of thought, however, is quickly negated by Monty Montgomery, who is the spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association branch at Northwest. According to Mr. Montgomery, the problem here has nothing to do with any unhappiness among Northwest pilots, but instead, the blame can be put squarely on Northwest's shoulders. In an official statement regarding this past weekend's cancellations, Mr. Montgomery stated that the problem "is and always has been a staffing problem."

Northwest Airlines (NYSE: NWA) believes that a reduction in flights may restore orderly service after a week of massive cancellations last month. The airline blamed those cancellations on severe weather, air traffic control problems and pilot absenteeism, which was an astonishing 80% higher last month than in 2006. The Air Line Pilots Association's Monty Montgomery told Reuters that it would be more accurate to attribute the cancellations to inadequate staffing during the peak summer travel season.

The number five U.S. airline said last Friday that it would cancel one of its Detroit-to-Frankfurt flights starting July 18th to free up pilots, and would cut its domestic mainland capacity by 3%. "I think this is better than last-minute cancellations, but we would prefer that we have enough pilots to fly all the revenue flights," says Montgomery.

The cancellations come shortly after Northwest's exit from Chapter 11 during which relations between management and workers had been far from stellar – mainly due to the forced pay cuts for many workers. Instead of looking ahead, workers have focused on the millions in stock awards given to CEO Doug Steenland, while rank-and-file sacrificed to keep the company afloat.

At a time when pilot salaries are seemingly continuously cut, executives decided to give themselves a hefty raise. One day, executives will figure out that it was the workers who helped to pull the company out of bankruptcy, and that maybe they should get a raise, too.