B767300ER: Pardon my faulty memory about the Ozark merger. I had forgotten the basic situation about the use of date-of-hire etc. My "good friend" who was with TWA (who acknowledged the rough deal for so many Ozark pilots) retired there about eight years ago.
Without the 9/11 catastrophe, could AA have digested TWA?
Although I should have admitted this, I can somewhat understand the AA Merger Committee's view, i.e., that any fairly secure future jobs for TWA pilots with a major airline could be considered very fortunate. But in my opinion, it would have still made me a bit uncomfortable to have used that as the main rationale for certain arbitration scenarios, were I to have had any input.
acb4u: out of respect for the United employees, it would be nice if the title of this topic could be more tactful than the crude phrase "deathwatch", as if it were the very old Frankish king Charlemagne in the Dark Ages.