Originally Posted by
sailingfun
The American pilots agreed to those cuts early in the economic downturn before anyone filled chapter 11. That allowed AMR to preserve large amounts of cash. That was widely criticized by other unions but in the end turned out to be smart.
Not true. "Those cuts" at American before our Chapter 11 were no where near (think half in the % pay cut department) those taken at DAL in bankruptcy. What it turned out to be is the catalyst to depress AA pilot pay for over a decade only to end up in bankruptcy anyway. Were it not for the leverage the USAir deal gave them, they might well have suffered another decade of industry bottom feeding. Even so, their current situation makes for poor evidence that the AA pilots made smart moves.
Maybe it was a smart move, I'm just not convinced for whom. None of this matters where ALPA is concerned since AA pilots belong with us and would make us all stronger. THAT would be a smart move.