If you think that's what caused the demise of EAL, there is a hole in your historical airline knowledge base big enough to fly an L1011 through. At least according to everything I have read. I was paying the EAL strike assessment at the time and ravenously reading all I could regarding the industry as I was an FNG at the time. To be sure, Borman was an incompetent CEO and they had deep-seated problems. Yet at the 11th hour, ALPA capitulated and gave away the house to save the airline. They gave Borman everything he wanted, even though they had already burned the furniture. Yet, he told them to pound sand and that the sale to lorenzo was a done deal. The company had been systematically raped to prepare for the sale. At some point, it became clear that EA management never had sincere intent to save the company.

And, to this bemused observer, the amount of "micro managing of front line employees from a crystal palace with reams of paper policies and procedures" exploded at United post-merger.

But, it sure sounds good!