Northwest Airlines is facing a deadline of one week from today in its dispute with its mechanics union.

Across the Atlantic, the airlines' mechanics union is threatening to take similar actions if Northwest's mechanics walk out.

"They wanted a strike, and now they have one," O.V. Delle-Femine, national director of the mechanics union, said in a statement late Friday.

But by evening, the mechanics union said a strike seemed certain.

The airline has about 38,000 employees, including those represented by the mechanics union.

The flight attendants countered that they have received promises from American's pilots and mechanics unions that they would not work with permanent replacements.

It was a company mechanic, John Liotine, a former president of the mechanics union, who sparked the investigation 15 months ago with a complaint to the F.A.A.

He was president of the mechanics union at the time he made the charges, but the union later removed him from office.

Meanwhile officials of its mechanics union refused to grant further cuts, saying, "the concessions stand is closed."

By contrast, the mechanics union said the airline had canceled 33 flights out of Detroit alone on Monday.