In management school and as a military officer, I was always taught that bad companies and bad units almost ALWAYS suffered from bad leadership. Bad labor relations are almost ALWAYS a sign of bad management also. My years of experience being in, and leading small and large units confirm that truism in spades.
Goodwin of UAL could have had a cheaper contract at the beginning of summer 2000, but chose instead to piss-off his customers in Denver and slow-roll his pilots, then he settles for a more expensive contract at the end of the summer.
For the past 18 months or so, Carty has enjoyed a 25-30% discount on his pilot costs over DAL and UAL. But that's not enough. Carty wants to essentially cut compensation in HALF over that. I've seen a lot of buffoonery at AA and almost ALL of it caused by bad inept leadership and supervision. Combine that with a government that is hostile to workers, that just ices the CEO's cakes.
As a former republican (I recently just deregistered from the party), I hope Mr. Bush will do something to stop the downhill spiral of the industry. The public may enjoy their below cost tickets right now, but in a year or two, they're not going to like what the industry turns into. If they think ticket prices are going to stay low just because airline workers are paid bus-driver wages, then they're in for a real shock.
When the economy comes back, there's going to be greatly decreased capacity, and prices are going through the roof, regardless if you pay your workers peanuts. Regardless if government does or does not emasculate the unions with a repeal of the RLA, you're going to see unbelievable union labor hostility in the industry.