jabone:

Another perspective of the employees situation at AA: Pick your favorite NFL team.

Tell the QB, Lineman, RB, WR all to pound sand! You might say to them, "Your contract has been voided; you will continue to work hard for me because by law...you cannot go on strike! Tough luck Mr. QB, Lineman, RB, WR, and etc. while you guys suffer, we front office guys will make MILLIONS upon successful exit from BK."

Now it is game time. Will everyone on the team play their best football while under the stress of the situation? How would any individual fan play if given the keys to the QB job?

Needless to say, the team is starting to lose games, management is ****ed and blames the QB (pilots in AA situation). They are the easiest and most visible target to the fans (passengers or customers). The front office takes no responsibility for the teams losses in fact blaming the play of the QB...who is also having to deal with the lack of motivation coming from his lineman, RB, WR (FA, mechanics, above and below wing personnel)

What do you do as the team owner? You get on SportsCenter and plead with the fans to ignore your decisions as the team owner, and or GM and blame the QB for having "problems".

I am not an NFL QB obviously, but I imagine they do a lot more behind the scenes stuff in order to throw those nice long passes in stride to our favorite WR. A lot of variables have to be choreographed beautifully in order for us to see positive results on the scoreboard. The same analogy can be used in the airline biz. Pilots (and all airline employees) do a lot of behind the scene stuff in order to keep the operation safe, on time, and reliable. They work in concert with each other in order to make this happen. Pilots, whether it is deserved or not, get the credit for the win and the bad press for each loss. It's ok, goes with the job!

Although not entirely necessary, but it would be great if all fans (passengers) could grasp this idea every time there is a labor dispute in the airline business. From a public perspective, it is easy to blame the QB, but it is also important to recognize that the front office makes the decision to use our failed bankruptcy laws to exploit their employees. In the end, the front office will ride off into the sunset on the white horse, with MILLIONS in their satchel and armed with the knowledge of how to rinse and repeat this very old scenario at the next unassuming NFL team (airline).