I don't know. To answer your question, and Carl's, with a question... does it really matter? The context of the discussion was who's got the biggest [...], and I think King and I agree it's not necessary to go there.

For the historians among us...

I don't actually even remember who the pilot was who told me this story, but I thought he was close friends with one of your negotiators, or something like that. As I recall, you guys were at the 11th hour, and your negotiators and the NMB are at the appointed time, at the hotel, and a bartender tells your guys you just struck, which was a surprise to them. The rest of the story, as I heard it, was that the company had started mothballing airplanes, had a plan for some LBO, where it would be sold in pieces, with AMR getting the Pacific. Administration threw two huge kinks in the plan. I don't remember the first, but the second was that the Pacific routes were not transferable the way your management intended: the US would get them. That stopped the transaction, and turned the hose back on management, who had to negotiate something in a hurry.

Is it plausible or true? It sounded right to me, and the guy sounded credible. Does it matter? Not really. I think King was making a different point than what I understood initially when replying about the strike. You guys can be proud that you struck, and still take nothing away from your compadres on the other side of the shoeline. Wear that t-shirt.