The Truth about what AA did to TWA F/A's

[Crack-Ed]

Inside, a representative of the picketers met with union President
Tommie Hutto-Blake. Later, they were to meet with American Airlines
officials.

Hutto-Blake...... Now there's a real leader

 

[MQAAord]

MQAAord: At least you weren't lied to by Carty, ALPA and APA about what was coming your way.

Sure I was (by Carty at least). I was recalled in the spring of 2002 with the promise of a bright future now that I was back. The company was "so glad I was back, and I was greatly missed while I was on furlough!" Yet I got furloughed again 6 months later.

Oh yeah, and the whole reason I was in the class that I was in, was because AA lost my background check info. That delayed my class date by 4 weeks. Which would have put me ahead of the TWA F/As. So that was the first screwing I got

Pilots don't get their date of hire until they graduate either

Are you absolutely positively sure about that? Last I checked AMR pilots are employees as of the day they start class. The day they start class is the date on their IDs.

Get over it, you were a new hire.

Actually, that's my entire point! I have gotten over it! I've come to grips with my furlough, accepted that my recall rights will be allowed to expire and that I will never work for AA again I'm fine with that now! My life is great and I've moved on, or 'gotten over it', so to speak

My husband was ex-TWA. He left for DL in 1999. To all TWA employees I am sincerely sorry you lost your airline. He flew with many great people while he was there.


Edit to add: In no way do I think what happened to the TWA folks was fair or just. But if I'm any example of how AMR treats it's own-hired people, what makes anyone think AMR will treat an aquired carrier's employees any better? Pathetic, yes, but true.

 

[Rik717pilot]

MQAAord:

Sorry, didn't know your connections to the TWA family. Sorry too for the BOHICA you got from APFA and AMR. It is true that we pilots get date of hire for company benefits, but for pay and bidding, seniority is actuated on the date of passing the final check ride. Best regrads, RIK717.

 

[MQAAord]

Thank you Rik, and likewise best regards to you too.

We've got friends of my husband's who didn't leave TWA and ended up on AA furlough. One is now flying 747s for Jalways and has seen more of the world than he could ever have hoped for at AA. I'm a little jealous actually

As more me, I've sold some of my old uniforms on eBay (the non-current ones) and I sold some current ones to a collector in the Netherlands (http://www.uniformfreak.com). Maybe I'll send the rest to a museum in 30 years......

 

[pipe]

By DAVID KOENIG
.c The Associated Press

EULESS, Texas (AP) - Former TWA flight attendants picketed their own
union Friday, protesting what they say is the labor group's
unwillingness to help them get back their jobs, which were lost after
the 2001 terror attacks.

Beginning next month, the first of about 2,900 former TWA flight
attendants will lose their chance to be rehired at American Airlines,
whose parent bought Trans World Airlines. Their rehiring rights
expire after five years, and it's been nearly that long since the
first post-Sept. 11 layoffs.

The ex-TWA workers want to stay in the rehiring line, hoping that
better conditions in the airline business could result in their
rehiring. Getting their old jobs back could mean qualifying again for
health insurance and a pension.

About 30 former TWA flight attendants protested outside the
headquarters of the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, or
APFA, which represents about 18,000 workers at Fort Worth-based
American. The demonstrators carried placards reading, ``A real union
protects all of its members.''

Inside, a representative of the picketers met with union President
Tommie Hutto-Blake. Later, they were to meet with American Airlines
officials.

The picketing highlighted the ``we''-and-``they'' tension that has
existed between the two groups of flight attendants ever since AMR
Corp. bought TWA out of bankruptcy months before 9/11.

The TWA attendants had been represented by the International
Association of Machinists, but when they became AMR employees, their
new union put them at the bottom of American's seniority list. That
made the TWA veterans - some with decades of experience - vulnerable
to layoffs.

``We had no other union standing up for us,'' said former TWA
attendant Jeanne Gibbons. ``And if APFA can put you on the bottom,
they do.''

A class-action lawsuit over stripping seniority from the TWA
employees is pending in federal court in New York. Friday's picketers
said they were instead focused on preserving their right to a job if
American calls back laid-off flight attendants.

They could be waiting in vain, however. AMR lost $8.1 billion and
shed 40,000 jobs from 2001 through 2005. And even though AMR made
money in the April-June quarter, the most recent for which figures
are available, American is still shrinking its U.S. capacity.

But the picketers took hope from Delta Air Lines Inc.'s announcement
Friday that it is recalling 200 flight attendants, and Northwest
Airlines Corp.'s decision Thursday to recall 1,131 furloughed
attendants in advance of a possible strike.

Mike Schwerm, who spent 24 years with TWA and was out of work for two
years before catching on with JetBlue Airways, said American doesn't
want the TWA workers because by contract they would get top wages,
about $46 an hour, instead of starting pay of about $17 an hour.

``And APFA wants us off the property because they want to protect
their membership,'' Schwerm said. ``It's the first time a company and
a union worked together to eliminate a specific group of employees.''

The union says they have tried to help the laid-off TWA veterans.

Union spokeswoman Leslie Mayo said Hutto-Blake, the union president,
has asked AMR Chief Executive Gerard Arpey to let the TWA workers
stay on the rehire list, but to no avail.

Tim Smith, a spokesman for the airline, confirmed that American will only consider such a change when it negotiates a new 2008 contract with the flight attendants. He said the five-year limit on rehiring rights is common in the airline industry and based on the assumption
that long-gone former employees don't want to return.

The ex-TWA workers say many of their colleagues are interested in
rejoining American - some for pensions or health insurance, others
for the company's generous travel benefits. They have elicited
support from officials of the Teamsters and a rival union, the
Association of Flight Attendants.

But the five-year rehiring window closes between next month and July
2008 for more than 2,900 TWA veterans and about 900 American flight
attendants who were hired after the TWA acquisition in April 2001 but
before 9/11.

The laid-off workers could apply for jobs later - but at entry-level
pay with no seniority credit toward pensions.

Spokesman Tim Smith is a real effing genius! His assumption is based on another assumption - that the furloughed people had only a few years of pay and benefit seniority. Not so in this case. What a jack off!

PIPE

 

[ultrarunner]

If I recall, AA essentially came in and bought TWA at the 11th hour. Is there anyone here that thinks TWA would not have been liquidated had this not occured?

There are like many more TWA folks with jobs right now because of their company being aquired by AA.

Think about that.

 

[AAslag]

Runner,

I've been thinking about it a lot. Especially the part where I had 15+ years seniority before my furlough; 2 years, 6 months and 18 days ago.

I wish I could forget about it.

 

[AAslag]

There are like many more TWA folks with jobs right now because of their company being aquired by AA.

Think about that.[/quote]

And there are like many more TWA folks without jobs right now because of their company being aquired by the company named after the country I served.

 

[Rik717pilot]

Ultrarunner:

AA came and "bought" TWA because UAL was in the process of buying USAir and AMR didn't want UAL to get too big or at least bigger than AA, you know, the Johnson size factor. TWA was a deal. It was after all the news and commitments were made that AMR had TWA go into a Chap. 11 to get rid of Carl Ichan and his Karabu ticket deal. Once that happened, AMR came and levered our scope protections away from us by telling the MEC that AMR would walk away if TWA/ALPA/MEC didn't sign the scope deal that AMR wanted. ALPA didn't do squat to help the TWA pilots and was even helping APA do the Screw job. Very much the shot gun wedding! As to more TWA people having jobs.. well, if TWA had just died, we would have more people better placed in more jobs due to early scrambling prior to 9-11. Your direction is the normal brain washed "be happy you have a job" attitude of the sky nazis.

 

[glasspilot1]

Your direction is the normal brain washed "be happy you have a job" attitude of the sky nazis.

AA'ers have to assume TWA would have disappeared to justify their treatment of us. The fact is we were starting a code share with AWA and the strong possability of an eventual merger. We were expanding in the Caribbean and stepping on AA's toes. So AA does what it always does; buys the competition and squashes them. Just ask Reno and Air Cal. I fly with a lot of ex-Reno guys in STL, they say all Reno planes were parked and Reno routes are no longer served. Why did AA buy them? Just to get rid of them.

9-11? Remember the cash the government was handing out? TWA would have been first in line. 2 years later we would have been rid of the Ichan ticket "agreement". With our lower cost structure we may have been off to the races (like Continental?). Then AA comes in with it's promises in front of Congress, then steps off the podium and says "Senoirity? That's a union thing". "Fair and Equitable"? Did I say that?"