=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/04/28/f= inancial0040EDT0007.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Monday, April 28, 2003 (AP) Former TWA workers say goodbye CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer (04-28) 21:40 PDT ST. LOUIS (AP) -- They are about to lose their jobs. Many already have. But at a furlough party, the American Airlines employees -- 40- and 50-something-year-old flight attendants, ground workers, mechanics, pilots and ticket agents -- reveled on the dance floor. As the DJ played Gloria Gaynor's 1970s disco hit, "I Will Survive," the dancers mouthed the lyrics in agreement. All former employees of thrice-bankrupt TWA, they understand the airline industry's turbulence. "We know we're gone, we're being furloughed," said flight attendant Susan Lantz, a 33-year veteran. "But we're in court. We won't stop the fight." The former Trans World Airlines flight attendants are suing their union and American Airlines over lost seniority rights. When American bought St. Louis-based TWA in April 2001, the Texas-based company pledged to treat former TWA employees equitably. It left to the unions the job of integrating TWA's pilots and flight attendants into American's fold. TWA flight attendants and most of its pilots wound up losing the years of seniority they had accumulated at the airline last based in St. Louis. Now, in American's cost-cutting plan to shed thousands of jobs to avoid bankruptcy, former TWA flight attendants and pilots with decades of experience are being laid off. Targeted are 2,500 pilot jobs and about 2,000 flight-attendant positions. As many as 600 pilots who work out of St. Louis could be affected. All of American's roughly 1,800 St. Louis-based flight attendants will be furloughed. The former TWA employees either live in St. Louis or commute from other cities to work at American's St. Louis hub. Many who bought homes here after the merger are putting them on the market and heading to greener pastures. Furloughed flight attendant Mark Sheppard, 47, who sold his St. Louis home, said he is headed for culinary classes in Portland, Ore. Flight attendant Colleen Hawk, who organized Saturday's party, was furloughed Jan. 30. Her husband, pilot Gary Hawk, has been downgraded from captain to co-pilot and soon could be released. Their only immediate strategy, Colleen Hawk said, is to pray. The idea for the party came when Holiday Inn, where many St. Louis-based American workers who live elsewhere stay when they're in town, offered the ballroom for free. Hawk planned for 150; about 500 came. The old friends, who had flown to Tel Aviv and London and Milan together when TWA flew to those cities, may not see each other again. "This party embodies the spirit of TWA," Hawk said. "We're all here together. We are a family." Carlos Machado, 59, said he still wears the tie clip that bears the TWA name even when working American flights. He worked all but two of his 29 1/2 flight years with TWA, earning two awards of excellence for managing service on the Los Angeles to London route. "It's the profession I love," he said. "Unfortunately it's going to stop right here." On the Net: AMR: www.amrcorp.com Allied Pilots Association, www.alliedpilots.org Association of Professional Flight Attendants, www.apfa.org =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP