Labor Problems at the "new" US Airways

[Capn Mike]

You know one more thing to consider is that the ual-aaa merger was killed by one thing alone, the ual pilots. Apparently when the merger was announced the AAA line pilots started talking about how they were looking forward to bidding the 747, getting based out west, etc. This scared the ual guys who eventually sunk the deal.

I thought that it was the Department of Justice that sunk that deal because of antitrust issues.

 

[joevollers]

Yeah it was.....
But, if we believed that; we would just feel like employees as opposed to masteres of the airlines

 

[Marko Ramius]

Actually............

I thought that it was the Department of Justice that sunk that deal because of antitrust issues.

The deal sunk because UAL management realized that the proposed synergies of the deal weren't going to materialize(sound familiar?)-at least not at the planned levels and definetely not at $60/a share. The agreement UA signed with AAA had a hefty penalty clause due to Airways if UA withdrew from the deal, but not if the deal was rejected by the DOJ, so UA tried to stall and get the DOJ to be the official reason the deal was nixed. As expected, Jim Goodwin pooched it and news of UA's plans leaked well ahead of the DOJ's ruling so they ended up paying anyway and loosing alot of clout in DC which would come back to bite them during things like the ATSB, pension funds, etc.