Originally Posted by
Starcheck102
The APA pilots had a "veto" clause in their PWA regarding post merger SLI. They controlled the entire process at a time before Bond-McCaskill was written, and would be the sole arbiters of the new seniority list.
The TWA pilots could either accept AMR's terms, or they could take a little trip to Chapter 7 and interview for their former positions.
The TWA pilots dismissed their counsel from ALPA legal, hired new ones, and sued everyone in sight. Those actions are a bit wanting against the background of a dozen years with no profit, three bankruptcies, and Carl Icahn bleeding them dry.
No one had the lawful power to abrogate the PWA at American. It is delusional to think that the American pilots would offer terms that damaged their own members while they held the power to dictate perms.
Additionally, nothing ALPA did, or wrote in any emails, would alter the equation for the TWA pilots in their new seniority list. This is classic scapegoating.
I interned at TWA in the mid-nineties; I showed up dewy-eyed about the prospects of getting a foot in the door with a legacy carrier. Three months later I left with an indispensable notion of what a doomed company looks like.
Make all the counter-claims you wish dude. A jury disagreed with you and ALPA. So has a judge. A judge that has subsequently ruled against every attempt by ALPA to make this go away. This doesn't happen because of blind hatred for ALPA. It happened because ALPA damaged TWA pilots by representing APA in the hopes of making APA pilots ALPA pilots someday. ALPA did this while TWA pilots mistakenly thought ALPA was representing them.
Carl