I like this take (up to a point) on the US Airways bankruptcy. The colossal mismanagement of the airline industry, including the ridiculous labor agreements they have entered over the years – due primarily to their near-monopoly status, is finally coming to a head. It is definitely not the union members’ faults that they got what they could from the airlines, and it is beyond ridiculous that the so-called leaders of these organizations are “jumping ship” with big severance packages at the same time they are crying poor to the bankruptcy courts and at the bargaining table. However, the belly-aching over the deep cuts being negotiated to labor agreements now gets no sympathy here – you got your monopoly rents over the years, and hopefully you got some socked away. Now that the airlines are being forced to operate like real businesses, maybe the rest of us won’t have to pay for either the mismanagement or the monopoly-rent labor agreements.
