American's layoff methods decried By Maria Recio Star-Telegram Washington Bureau WASHINGTON _ In often-emotional testimony, former TWA workers facing massive layoffs accused American Airlines of lying in its promises of treating them fairly _ an accusation that found a receptive audience Thursday in Missouri senators at a congressional committee. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., chairing a hearing of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said it was "a story of how the once-promising combination of two airlines turned into a disaster for so many former TWA workers." American Airlines acquired most of the assets of the bankrupt TWA in April 2001 and pledged to integrate TWA's 20,000 employees into the Fort Worth-based carrier's workforce. Since then, American has been slammed by the economic slowdown, terror attacks, a dropoff in business travel, the rise of discount carriers, the Iraq war, and the spread of SARS, and the Fort Worth airline has laid off thousands of employees. Former TWA workers said they are disproportionately being hit with layoffs. American management maintained it did the best it could in urging its unions to combine the seniority lists in a fair manner; the lists determine the way layoffs are handed out. "The simple fact is that there was no significant integration of the seniority lists," Bond said. "The flight attendants and most pilots were simply stapled to the bottom of the seniority lists, and when the cuts came, they came from the bottom up." "The result: 60 percent of all former TWA pilots were stapled to the bottom of the seniority list at American Airlines," Bond said. "However, as poorly as the pilots were treated, it has been much worse for TWA's flight attendants. As of July 2, 2003, 100 percent of all former TWA flight attendants will have been furloughed by American Airlines _ that's nearly 4,200 employees." One of the flight attendants facing furlough in July is Karen Schooling, who told the committee that she is a widow with a severely disabled son and is slated to lose her medical benefits after 30 days. "I am facing total and complete financial devastation," Schooling said. Flight attendant Sherry Cooper _ who served on the TWA board of directors as a labor representative, and filed suit last year over the treatment of the TWA flight attendants in the acquisition _ testified to the Senate committee that there were no negotiations on the seniority list, "zero, none, nada." Speaking for American Airlines, Jeff Brundage, vice president of employee relations, said, "It was always our intent to provide jobs to the TWA workers until their retirement, and we did everything we could to put our newest employees on par with all other American employees." Brundage blamed the downturn in the economy and the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks for the layoffs. And he emphasized that when TWA was on the ropes, "only American was willing to make a comprehensive proposal that saved the jobs of many TWA employees." Later in the hearing, Brundage noted that before the acquisition, he had to reassure American workers about their job security. "We were not going to make this transaction on the backs of American employees," he said. That did not satisfy Bond, who read from a list of promises from American executives, including former chief executive Donald Carty, who was invited to testify but did not appear. In response to Brundage's insistence that management had only encouraged its unions to treat TWA workers fairly, Bond said, "You were all over the middle of these negotiations and had a significant say in how they would come out." The Missouri Republican, who is a member of the committee but not its chairman, was given the courtesy of chairing the hearing because of his home-state interest in the former St. Louis-based carrier. The only other senator attending the hearing was fellow Missouri Republican Sen. Jim Talent, who is not a member of the panel but was permitted to participate. Talent, a former labor lawyer, said, "I look at this and ask `What happened? What happened?" Capt. Edwin White, who was the lead negotiator on the seniority issue for the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American pilots, told the committee that the list settled on by APA was "an extremely fair expression of the legitimate and realistic career expectations of both pilot groups. "In light of the fact that TWA was teetering on the verge of collapse and dissolution at the time of the asset purchase, the career expectations of the TWA pilots were infused with a much higher probability of furlough _ or even worse, permanent unemployment _ than the American pilots," White said. Talent asked Brundage and White if they would be willing to go back to the table to re-do seniority lists to make them more equitable, but both American representatives declined. Brundage said he had the choice of declining the seniority list presented by the unions and treating the TWA employees as "new hires _ a standing that would have cost them substantially in pay and benefits." White said that the former TWA pilots had already filed suit in New Jersey and that Congress should let the courts decide. Bond, who has tried and failed to pass legislation ordering mandatory arbitration on the lists, has not decided what he will do next. "This was a fact-finding hearing to get to the bottom of some competing allegations," said Ernie Blazar, a Bond spokesman. "It's too early to say what else Bond will do." *************************************************** 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.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************