[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 129 (Monday, October 1, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Page S9980]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BOND:
  S. 1479. A bill to require procedures that ensure the fair and 
equitable resolution of labor integration issues in transactions for 
the combination of air carriers, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
  Mr. BOND. Madam President, I rise today to introduce a bill that is 
very important for many employees of the airline industry in my State 
of Missouri and elsewhere across the country. The legislation is 
entitled ``The Airline Workers Fairness Act.''
  I have previously written to the distinguished Presiding Officer and 
the ranking member to explain to them the reason for this concern; that 
is, the fact that for the good of the country, the airline industry, 
and the traveling public, American Airlines acquired the assets of TWA. 
This was a good measure for continuation of airline service, for the 
employees, and for the communities served.
  Now, however, as a result of the outrageous terrorist attacks on 
September 11, airlines across the country have found a significant 
decrease in volume.
  I believe there is no safer time to fly the airlines than now. We go 
through a little more security. I am delighted to do it. I believe that 
we are safe on airline travel, certainly safer than we were before 
September 11. I believe it is an outstanding time to fly. But many 
people, because of legitimate concerns for themselves and their 
families, are not flying. So there are layoffs going on throughout the 
airline industry.
  What this bill seeks to do is to ensure that after the two companies, 
American Airlines and TWA, and TWA Express, are merged, after the first 
of the year, that the employees of both merged airlines will be treated 
fairly.
  Obviously, everybody understands with a decrease in airline traffic, 
there is going to be a need for layoffs. We have seen those layoffs. We 
hope, we fervently pray, that we can get back to business in the United 
States and get people flying again so they will use this valuable 
resource and get these people back to work.
  I have talked to an awful lot of people at TWA who realize they will 
be a much smaller percentage of the total workforce than the larger 
numbers of American Airlines employees. They have sought to find a way 
to make sure that these two airlines are combined in a fair and 
reasonable manner. They looked at the Allegheny-Mohawk approach that 
was applied by the Civil Aeronautics Board when those two airlines were 
combined, and the transactions in that were performed in a way to 
encourage negotiation, mediation, and ultimately resolution of 
seniority integration issues by a neutral third party arbitrator 
selected by the parties.
  The purpose of this is to ensure that there is a fair and reasonable 
basis for resolving the seniority issues facing these employees.
  Several people have accused me of having some formula that I want to 
see adopted, having decided in advance how this should proceed. I don't 
know enough about seniority practices of either of the airlines to try 
to propose a solution. But when you have both parties coming together, 
seeking an arbitration panel or arbitrator who is knowledgeable and who 
will hear presentations from both sides, we can make sure that American 
Airlines employees and TWA employees are all treated in a fair and 
reasonable manner.
  I am very pleased to say we have had strong support from the Airline 
Pilots Association, the International Association of Machinists, the 
Teamsters, and the AFL-CIO. Nobody knows how these issues will be 
resolved, but an awful lot of people are counting on us to make sure 
they are resolved in a fair and reasonable manner, giving both sides an 
opportunity to be heard and to have an arbitrator propose a final 
decision.
  I look forward to working with the occupant of the chair and others 
as we move forward on this very important matter. I thank my colleagues 
for their kind attention. I ask that if they wish to join me in this 
bill, please do so. It is important that we act on this measure this 
year. I will be happy to respond to inquiries and work with colleagues 
who have thoughts on how we can improve.

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