One of the challenges in working with a variety of different primary sources,
e.g., union and company publications, multiple forms of court documentation, taped phone messages, audiocassettes and videos, was that there was no
uniformity in how words were spelled and how they were used. I did not alter
any quoted material, but in my own writing, I made some judgment calls to
create as much consistency as possible.
There were three major unions at TWA which I wrote about, in order of
frequency: Independent Federation of Flight Attendants (IFFA), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), and Airline
Pilots’ Association (ALPA). The Independent Federation of Flight Attendants
always referred to themselves as IFFA, not the IFFA, and I adopted that style
for all three unions. This style was typically not a problem for ALPA, but in
many of the primary sources, IAM is referred to as the IAM.
The spelling of words, primarily dealing with negotiations and contracts,
also varied among the primary documents. For my own writing, I chose
the spelling that seemed to represent the majority way: two-tier; self-help;
buyout; and snap-back.
With a few exceptions, when I first introduced someone, I would use his/
her whole name and position. After that, I would use only their last name.