[JURIST] Leading Tuesday's corporations and securities law news, Northwest Airlines continued service today, the second full business day of strikes by their mechanics' union. In what some are seeing as a serious blow to organized labor [Reuters report], the airline completed 98% of its scheduled flights, though many have been delayed. Northwest's other unions have not showed solidarity with the mechanics by walking off the job, unlike recent wide-spread wildcat strikes at British Airways [JURIST report] in support of that airline's caterers. Northwest has prepared for the strike by training replacement mechanics during the months leading up to the strikes. Northwest says that it must cost costs, and says it needed $176 million in cuts from the mechanics. The union says the airline was actually trying to break up the union, and points to the $102 million spent on training the replacement workers as proof. The New York Times has more.

In other corporations and securities law news…

• The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) [official website] has announced an administration plan to require truck and van manufacturers to meet higher gas mileage standards starting in 2011. The plan is part of a proposal designed to reform Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) legislation [NHTSA website]. In a press release, the agency said that the proposed plan provides manufacturers a transition period between 2008 and 2010. Critics of the plan argue that the changes will mostly affect struggling US manufacturers GM and Ford. Bloomberg has more.
• As reported earlier on JURIST's Paper Chase, the SEC has sued two former high-ranking Kmart executives. The SEC charged former CEO Charles Conaway and former CFO John McDonald with making fraudulent statements on the company's third quarter statements for 2001 [Kmart's form 10-Q] and for lying in a conference call with forecasters and analysts. The alleged fraud took place in the months leading up to Kmart's January 2002 bankruptcy. In a press release Tuesday the SEC said that the men lied about $850 million in excess inventory and about why vendors were not being paid in time. Reuters has more.