Let's review:
1. American Airlines,/AMR corporation purchased the assets of TWA in April of 2001, THIS WASN'T A MERGER! TWA employees were offered jobs at American, an offer American Airlines did not have to make.
2. TWA declared bankruptcy in January 10, 2001...so this had NOTHING to do with 9/11! TWA hadn't made money in ANY quarter for over 13 years! TWA had also declared bankruptcy in 1992 and 1995. TWA was a money loser, for many years and many reasons.
3. The local TWA ALPA and ALPA national did the best they could negotiating from an extremely weak bargaining position. AMR had every right to take a "take-it-or-leave-it" approach. They didn't owe TWA anything. TWA employees are lucky for the consideration they received. The only other alternative was Chapter 7 bankruptcy, and then all TWA employees would have been out of work.
4. The biggest TWA complainers, the number one being the gentleman interviewed all over the internet for this case,was hired during the final few years of TWA's existence and would have held a junior position or worse furloughed at any other airline. This junior employee and others sought employment at TWA knowing the airline was teetering on the brink of collapse. It was a gamble to work there. The only reason TWA was doing any hiring in those final years was due to attrition of employees "jumping ship" to healthier airlines. Yet he still feels ALPA, TWA and American owe him something.
5. What killed TWA was Carl Ichan, not ALPA, 9/11 or the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978.
6. I have listened to former TWA employees complain about this for years! With every passing year the facts of this case have become more and more embellished. Bottom line, look at the state TWA was in during the 1990's. They were closing their doors for good in January 2001, when AMR decided to snap up the assets. The rest of their story is all BS.
7. Where do the former TWA pilots think this money is coming from? American Airlines pilots, the TWA/ALPA? No. Half the money comes from insurance, the other half comes from the dues money collected over the last decade from ALPA pilots at other airlines that have had nothing to do with this case. So the former TWA pilots are penalizing the pilot groups of United, Delta, FedEx, Alaska and a dozen or so regional airlines. The TWA pilot group has no become the pariahs of the airline industry. What a bunch of whiners!