travesty

In 2001 American Airlines’ CEO, Don Carty, stood before Congress and promised that TWA employees would receive “fair and equitable treatment “as a condition of the buyout of TWA by American Airlines. What resulted was a far different reality - 100% of TWA flight attendants as well as all but a few thousand of the 25,000 TWA employees in the other work groups lost their full seniority and ultimately their jobs. It is a prime example of something that is very wrong and unjust in this country.

The parties involved American Airlines, TWA, and their respective flight attendant unions: Association of Profession Flight Attendants (APFA) and the International Associate of Machinists (IAM) would like this travesty to remain silent. They are anxious for the TWA employees to dismiss the matter and “get over it!” But there are important and painful issues that need to be addressed.

The TWA flight attendants represented by their union, the IAM, agreed, at the request of American Airlines, to waive the bold provisions in their contracts in exchange for written promises and assurances from American Airlines that they would be integrated fairly into American's workforce.

The Allegheny-Mohawk provisions in their contracts guaranteed TWA flight attendants the option to have their integration into any purchaser’s workforce decided by an independent neutral third party, provided no agreement on integration could be reached between TWA and the purchaser's unions. According to the provisions, this independent arbitration would be binding. This is what is known as the SCOPE clause in the flight attendant contract.

The IAM used their authority to relinquish the SCOPE clause without a vote from its members and failed to require a binding agreement for use of an arbitrator. This action was taken at high risk to its members in the interest of integrating the two airlines quickly and smoothly. The TWA flight attendants placed their trust in good faith assurances made to them by American Airlines, its management and unions.

To meet their promise AMERICAN AIRLINES provided a facilitator but the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), representing American's flight attendants, refused to meet with him. As a result the simple fact is that there was no integration of the seniority lists and the APFA stapled the TWA flight attendants to the bottom of the seniority list. And when the cuts came, they came from the bottom up, no matter how long they had worked at TWA. The result - 100% of TWA Flight Attendants (4,200) were furloughed as of
July 2, 2003.

The IAM took pride in their “clout,” their top-notch legal team and their reputation for never having lost a membership’s seniority. They had to have known why AMERICAN AIRLINES was demanding the TWA flight attendants give up their strongest protection, the SCOPE clause. The IAM provided the TWA flight attendants minimal information. Even the most vigilant flight attendant could not have fully comprehended the complicated legal situation that was thrust upon them when AA purchased TWA. But the fact that the average flight attendant may not have understood the implications of what they were being asked to surrender in the SCOPE clause did not relieve the IAM of their responsibility to educate them about what was in their best interest. That is the job of a union. The IAM ignored the TWA flight attendant but looked after the mechanics and other related members. The IAM has a long history of making deals that benefit the leadership of their organization to the detriment of its members.

In her 2004 decision to dismiss the TWA flight attendant Federal lawsuit against AA and the APFA Judge Gershon stated that the TWA flight attendants were suing the wrong party. She suggested that the TWA flight attendants should sue their union, the IAM, for their failure to require binding arbitration in return for relinquishing the SCOPE clause. Unfortunately for the TWA flight attendants the statute of limitations for suing the IAM had expired by the time of Judge Gershon’s decision.

The furlough of 100% of TWA Flight Attendants at American Airlines was unjust, especially given the fact that a large number of the TWA Flight Attendants have more seniority than American Flight Attendants who get to keep their jobs. Most TWA flight attendants have over twenty-five years of seniority. They have been replaced by flight attendants with two years seniority. Additionally the last group of furloughed TWA flight attendants was denied their contractual severance pay because the acquiring flight attendant union, APFA, used it as a bargaining chip in concessionary agreements with AMERICAN AIRLINES.

While American Airlines benefited from TWA’s routes, planes and slots the overwhelming majority of the burden of American's financial problems were foisted on the TWA Flight Attendants. With lives suddenly upended, the devastation of their careers has resulted in several suicides, numerous foreclosures, divorces and financial hardship and ruin.

The senior, predominately female TWA flight attendants, whose TWA pensions were reduced approximately 75% after TWA’s bankruptcy, should be enjoying a comfortable retirement. But the resulting injustice of the AA/TWA integration is that they are now faced with starting over in the workforce. They must acquire skills that will equip them to find employment and compete for jobs in a marketplace which often discriminates against age and sex. Another resulting injustice is that many TWA flight attendants may never be recalled to AMERICAN AIRLINES because five years after the date of furlough their recall rights will expire. Some will reach that deadline in October 2006. After twenty-five years of service they will lose the pension, travel and health benefits they had worked a lifetime to acquire. Tragically there remains no recourse for the TWA flight attendants because the action that ended their careers has been found to be legal, as of today.

But was it RIGHT?

When the Civil Aeronautics Board was disbanded after deregulation in the 1970’s, the Allegheny-Mohawk provisions they had created became obsolete and there was no legislation created to replace them. Currently the Allegheny-Mohawk provisions are used only as guidelines for union contracts. But, as in the case of TWA, a union has the authority to abrogate them.

In April 2003, under pressure from their constituents in TWA hub where jobs were drastically diminished as a consequence of 9/11, Missouri Senators Kit Bond and Jim Talent offered The Airline Employee Fairness Act to the supplemental appropriations bill. Bond and Talent's legislation would require all parties to go back to the negotiation table to bargain for two weeks to resolve the situation, and failing that, to go to binding arbitration with a third party arbitrator. It received support in both the Senate and House.

In July 2003 at the Sense of the Senate Hearings to investigate the fairness of the TWA/AA worker integration George Brundage, American Airlines Vice President of Financial Affairs, claimed that the TWA flight attendants were treated fairly for the short time they were employed by AA because they were given their seniority pay, medical and travel benefits. Brundage and Captain White, representing the pilots union who coined the phrase “We did it because we could,” insisted that the AA/TWA integration be settled in a court of law. Fully aware that American Airlines’ actions were legal, Brundage and White tried to stop The Airline Employee Fairness Act from being passed. It was the single roadblock in what seems like a conspiracy to eliminate the senior TWA workforce. Even though the amendment was receiving strong support in the House and Senate, it was suddenly withdrawn by Senator Bond …purportedly after a meeting with AA’s CEO Don Carty to discuss the possibility of a withdrawal of flights form St. Louis. Had the amendment passed it would have replaced the expired Allegheny-Mohawk provisions and provided hope for justice in the AA/TWA seniority integration.

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW!

There is a very good case to be made against the injustice to the TWA flight attendants but that case has never been made. There was complete silence from the IAM, who has the power to fight, and its leadership. They did nothing, said nothing, and allowed the travesty to pass unnoticed by the general public. AMERICAN AIRLINES has succeeded in eliminating most of the TWA senior work force and all of the TWA flight attendants. They have been forgotten and cast aside and they are left with a profound sense of disappointment, outrage and abandonment.

The senior worker is vulnerable in the USA because they earn higher wages and generally create higher insurance expenditures. They are increasingly being replaced with cheap labor at home and abroad as a result of unbridled corporate greed. The injustice imposed on the TWA flight attendants could have been prevented if laws had been put in place to protect them. This trend should be halted by Congressional action to prevent the further devastation of innocent, hard working United States citizens.