Flight attendants at Northwest have decided to tough it out and not accept the pay cuts the airline wants to impose, reports Bloomberg. The Minneapolis-based airline runs a few flights to McCarran but is not a major carrier here.

Still, this could be the first sign that some airline or another is going to finally die. Bankruptcy and federal loans have been keeping the same number of legacy carriers on life-support for four or five years. And every year the analysts say there is too much capacity in the industry and that some rationalization is going to be needed. Even with their new slimmed down payrolls and more efficient aircraft, most American carriers are not looking for the good times to start rolling soon.

So it was probably inevitable that one union or another would say, “Enough is enough.” Of course, bankruptcy allows the company to impose the cuts but it won’t allow them to force the attendants to fly. Of course, the attendants have been pared to the minimum number required to hand out a soda on most flights these days, so a strike might not cripple the airline. Some would probably cross picket lines and most airlines could probably press other management into service and hire strikebreakers.

So this may just be a blip on the radar screen.