Two Unions Agree To Share Workers At 'New' American Airlines

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Transport Workers Union of America have agreed to jointly represent nearly 30,000 ground workers at the "new" American Airlines following the merger of American Airlines and US Airways.

According to a news release, the the two unions signed joint agreements to cover the Mechanic & Related, Fleet Service, and Stores employee work groups at the soon to be merged airline.

The partnership will be called the TWU/IAM Employee Association. It will ask the National Mediation Board to have the members in each job classification take part in an election after the close of the American-US Airways merger, which is expected this fall.

The unions say the election will formalize the agreement they reached this week.

3/27/2013: Related Story: Judge Approves American-US Airways Merger Deal

About 6,200 people now work at the maintenance and engineering base in Tulsa.

According to the news release, negotiating committees comprised of an equal number of representatives from each union will work out the details of collective bargaining agreements for the combined carriers' employees.

The IAM currently represents Mechanic and Related, Fleet Service, and Stores employees at US Airways while the TWU represents these classifications at American.

TWU also currently represents aircraft dispatchers, flight crew training instructors and flight simulator engineers at both airlines. IAM represents Maintenance Instructors at US Airways.

Read all of our coverage on the American Airlines bankruptcy and merger on our special page.