The Transport Workers Union represents thousands of employees of American Airlines and US Airways (and several other airlines such as Southwest where they recently had an odd scene go down as well).  This union is under new management and they’re just itching to get in the way of themselves.

Most recently, the TWU filed to become a party to the lawsuit the DoJ has filed against the merger of American Airlines and US Airways.  The technical term is intervenor and it means that they want to become a part of the lawsuit as the plaintiff or defense.  In this case, they wanted to be the defense.

US Airways and American Airlines both filed objections to that stating that, in this case, the TWUs interests were fully aligned with the airlines’ and therefore didn’t need representation.  The DoJ objected as well.

The truth is that no one wanted them at the table because who needs a union coming in late to the party on an accelerated court schedule?  Who wants an airline union showing up to be involved in such a lawsuit under any terms.

No one.

So now the TWU wants to be an amicus to lawsuit so it can file it’s opinion.  This is likely to be granted as several other parties are already “interested friends of the court” in this trial.

The TWU has been under fire from other unions.  Most recently, the Teamsters attempted to grab a good portion of their membership away from US Airways and American Airlines and they barely fought them off.

It’s feeling threatened and insecure and its leadership wants to show it can play with the big boys.

The thing is, it can’t.  It can’t even keep its membership all that happy despite a very good deal negotiated for them in the merger.  The TWU is a hot mess and needs to go get its own house in order instead of interfering in issues it has little grasp of.

Filed under: Airline News, Mergers and Bankruptcy by ajax