TWA merger leaves pilots jobless MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. (AP) =97 When American Airlines bought TWA two years ago,= =20 it got 2,300 pilots from its former competitor in the deal. But now, only=20 565 of them remain with the bigger airline =97 something the former TWA=20 pilots say is no coincidence. A group of the former pilots is asking a=20 federal judge to order the airline to rehire more than 1,500 of them. The=20 pilots contend they have been among the first to be laid off as American=20 cuts jobs because most of them were put at the bottom of the seniority=20 lists. According to the lawsuit, many of the senior TWA pilots who were=20 integrated onto the American seniority lists were close enough to=20 retirement that their status would not have mattered much. The former TWA=20 pilots say that no pilot who was with American before the merger has been=20 laid off so far, though that is about to change. But Greg Overman, a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, which=20 represents American pilots, says that is not the case. He said pilots who= =20 joined American before the merger have also been laid off. This month,=20 American announced it was cutting 7,000 jobs, including 2,200 for pilots,=20 in what it said was an effort to remain solvent. The case, which began in=20 Texas more than a year ago, is now being argued in U.S. District Court in=20 Camden. The group of pilots named American Airlines, TWA and two pilots'=20 unions in its lawsuit. Before American bought TWA in 2001, the pilots union= =20 agreed to allow their employer to go into bankruptcy and waive a contract=20 provision that would have required an arbiter to oversee the integration of= =20 the seniority list for the two companies. The pilots union supported the sale because at the time it happened, it=20 looked like TWA was financially doomed. Bud Bensel, of Medford, the lead=20 complainant in the class-action suit, said there was an understanding that= =20 American would make sure its new pilots were treated fairly. The lawsuit=20 alleges that never happened, in part because the Airline Pilots=20 Association, the union that represented the TWA pilots, was in secret=20 negotiations to merge with the Allied Pilots Association. The merger,=20 though, never went through. And APA spokesman Overman said though a=20 committee from his union had explored merging with the larger ALPA, there=20 were never formal discussions of it. ``If you boil this down," said Bensel,= =20 who is preparing to retire from American after 36 years as a commercial=20 pilot, ``American failed to take care of its TWA employees." Fort Worth,=20 Texas-based American Airlines spokesman Todd Burke would not comment on the= =20 case, other than to say the issues involved were resolved by an arbitrator= =20 in 2001. A spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association left a message with= =20 The Associated Press saying the union's court filings spoke for themselves= =20 and did not return a telephone call seeking further information. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************