Originally Posted by
jrtimm
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.
You need to go back and review the pay rates at the time. AMR never got on the big pay raise bandwagon before 911 and then took cuts soon after. At Delta we got a large raise immediately before 911 and then 4% raises for the next 3 years. The difference in cash flow on just pilot costs was huge.