You are correct, AA pilots will follow the lead of all the other airline pilot groups as they accept peanuts just to keep "their" (?) airline afloat. When will you fools wake up and realize that the system is way beyond rigged against you, especially as long as you continue to act like it is 1975? Here is a news flash: THE ASSOCIATIONS HAVE FAILED YOU! THE ASSOCIATIONS ARE OBSOLETE! Now what are you going to do about it? Read your, pilot, history and learn or you will continue to repeat your mistakes.
Management has been successful in destroying the profession because they understand how screwed up the current system of airline pilot labor representation actually is. Until pilots come together as one group you will continue to flounder. The self-proclaimed leaders of all the "associations" are quick to tell you why a single organization to represent ALL commercial pilots won't work but they cannot point to any post deregulation successes, especially since pilots have lost over 50 percent of their purchasing power since 1978, not to mention the loss of respect and dignity the profession once enjoyed.
Now please do not think that what is needed involves a national seniority list. Unfortunately when anyone mentions one voice for pilots it is immediately assumed that an NSL is the objective, far from it. In fact if you want to see real turmoil just try to arrange the current pilots into one list, much less apply it, and watch the fur fly. What is required for the advancement of the profession is a single contract with a single pay scale, work rules, etc. And this is only the beginning. There is much more to this solution and it has many hurdles to concur, but unless a movement is begun to change the system, well a former ALPA president recognized this fact over 22 years ago: “I believe unequivocally that anything less than a strong centralized national union in today’s environment is suicide for the profession and eventually for every pilot group.” Captain Hank Duffy, outgoing ALPA president, October, 1990.
Because they have little knowledge of or respect for their history, the AA pilots will accept their contract as will the chumps at CAL/UAL. Sad, very sad.