Interesting AMR insider (non) activity.

[strikeforce]

Not really. If you negotiate with yourself is that really a fair negotiation? When executives "negotiate" their wages they negotiate with other executives, everyone at the table has an interest in seeing executive compensation go up. Thats the reason why executive pay has skyrocketed, no other reason. No supply and demand, no invisable hand, the game is rigged plain and simple. Years ago Executives were more cautious because they knew that outrageous compensation would be an invitation for trouble, trouble from the Unions and other workers. The tax rate was high so they focused on other ways of getting compensation.Todays Union leaders unfortunately aspire to be like them, so the criticism exists but its muted. There's some back scratching going on there as well.

The TWU does such a lousy job of negotiating because the leadership has alienated themselves from the membership. The union has leverage over the company if you only look behind you....if you see 11,000 guys standing there....good for you, but the TWU doesn't have anyone standing there because you believe in negotiating alone....a secret group of a couple dozen and then expect 11,000 to pass your garbage T/A's. That's how it's always been and it continues today. The union leadership is out for themselves, either looking to move up to the INTL or hop over the fence and join the company. How many times has that happened???

 

[WorldTraveler]

...and the longer labor takes to come to an agreement, the deeper the cuts will have to be in order for the enterprise to return to viability.
If it happens in court, the creditors will ensure the cuts are deep enough to make the company viable for the long term.
As long as AA manages to keep burning the furniture and mortgaging everything they can to provide funding for the operation, labor doesn't seem to believe that they will have to face their day of reckoning -whether it be the fault of labor or mgmt.
Placing blame is not the issue.. the issue is what it takes to turn AA around and how deep the cuts will have to be and when they will be made to turn the company around.
.
There are clearly some AA employees who would be happy to drag the process out for several more years and then they can retire... AA mgmt's goal seems to be to obtain a significant amount of the operational cost savings from the new aircraft.
But new airplanes can't fix all of the problems and the new fleet will result in the loss of a lot of jobs... esp. in maintenance. Perhaps it is that reality more than any that ensures that, based on AA's decision to replace a significant amount of its fleet over a fairly short period of time, there will never be a time in at least the next 10 years where it makes sense to agree to concessions.
For the pilots, I would imagine that as many as possible would prefer to wait until the next year given the spike in retirements that will occur.
Both the pilot retirements and the reduction in maintenance costs resulting from the new fleet will be part of the process of reducing AA labor costs.
.
For other labor groups, there are not near as definite reasons to wait now or later.... but when about 20K employees in two powerful labor groups could be worse off by settling now vs. later, the chances of agreements over the next year are probably not great.