When US and American filed bankruptcy, every two-bit hack reporter bought the executive line that labor and unions were really at the heart of the problem. It was repeated ad naseum and now as two more airlines--which couldn't differ more in the way they operate--verge on bankruptcy as well, there are two strains of the useful myth forming.
The first is that an airline like Delta, which has unions, is suffering the same problem; "all those damn workers asking for a wage that can pay their rent are making us lose our shirts.
They're going to need to pitch in and do their part to save this company too." All the while, the shareholders and CEOs make millions.
Now in the coverage of an airline like ATA, which is also going bankrupt but
doesn't allow unions, the pundits and execs. seem to not even draw comparisons. "It's fuel prices," they say.
My final question is: when are people (especially those in the media covering these bankruptcies), going to open their f-cking eyes and see what's going on here. It's not unions taking in those extra millions every year.
As a real life example; how do airline executives reconcile the need to
take a quarter-billion from their employees, and then give it to their
top executives?
Let's all take a page from these CEOs. Parents; next time you don't have enough money for something you want, just take it from your kids. Commuters; just have the cashier at the gas station pay for your gas. After all, if he can't make some sacrifices, pretty soon he won't won't even have a job. I myself am marching straight down to a homeless shelter to collect my fee for giving change to homeless people on the street.