It will be tough to see who's who. NWA brought the honorable strikers back after the AMFA got back in. Not all are SCABS.
Sure, huge differences. However, end result the same. Delta seniority given for no Delta time served. Who gets the short end of the deal? Bottom line...results the same. What kind of seniority did TWAers get when they joined American?
any employee who loses their accrued seniority earned..
TWA Flight Attendants lost their bidding seniority...
At American, the ex-TWA mechanic and related went to binding arbitration regarding union seniority. Basically, the arbitrator ruled that the twaers get their full TWA seniority at the former TWA bases (MCI and STL) and they get 25% of their TWA seniority at some cities and they get a date of 4/10/01 (the date AA received the assets) at the rest. But in terms of seniority for determining pay, they got their full TWA seniority, which gave them a huge raise in hourly rates of pay; they went from being among the lowest paid in the industry to among the highest paid as a result of the deal.
If the TWA people had received their full TWA union seniority at AA, AA would have faced labor issues of nuclear proportions. AA employees, especially those with a lot of time, would NEVER have accepted a group of very senior people from a FAILED company waltzing in and taking their jobs/positions. We were NOT willing to take their place in the unemployment line. At DL/NW, both airlines bring substantial benefits to the table which result in a combined route system that covers most, if not all, of the world. Also, both DL and NW were about equal in terms of size, strength, financial health, and employee career expectations; the same CAN NOT be said regarding AA's purchase of TWA's assets. In my opinion, DL/NW was a pretty good match and seems to be going quite smoothly.
you know..
let me explain something here..
It is a well known fact that many people with high seniority don't retire even though they are able to do so. Why? Because in the case of F/As they fly the longest routes 2 or 3 times a month and are done; and they get top pay to boot, they fly a few days a month and thats it, it's virtual retirement at top pay. Additionally, at least at AA, some just give away their trips and fly very little, if at all. If the TWA F/As and all the other TWA employees would have been able to bring their 30 and 40 years of bidding seniority to AA, they would have never retired because at AA's much higher pay rates and pension accrual, they would have attempted to make up for all those many years of poor earnings and lack of pension accrual at TWA. There are still many ex-TWA people at AA, in fact, some on the ramp pick up CSs (extra hours from people who want time off) and overtime; they practically live there. Why? To make up for the poor wages and lack of pension at TWA; they have even said as much.
Thats right. There was NO amount of money that AA could have thrown at it's long time employees to "compensate" them for being stapled (thus losing seniority) under the TWAers. And that hypothetical huge raise would have meant nothing if long time AA employees were forced to take the TWAers place on the street.
AA guys got stapled?
having that type of professionalism infused..well lets put it like this, you are very fortunate.
and the rest of us "got" a seniority arbitration law..(if it is needed for what ever reason)
