It's a tough issue. Why should a pilot that got hired at a highly competitive/desirable airline take backseat seniority to one from an airline that whose hiring standards lower? In the case of AAL acquiring TWA, TWA's pilots were facing starting over, from the bottom, somewhere else at first year wages. At AAL, not only will they have jobs, but probably a 60% pay raise. Fences and some other provisions are probably in order, but strict seniority integration is very unfair to the AAL guys. This issue is best dealt with non-publically by the union leadership with inputs by the membership. AAL guys need to be reasonable, and the TWA guys need to realize that this is not a merger of equals - it's a lifeboat for TWA. There's a middle ground there, but strict seniority integration ain't it.
[This message has been edited by Roadtrip (edited 15 February 2001).]