[The Westerner]

A friend of mine is a flight attendant for AA. This person said that there are 51 Vice Presidents of AA. There used to be 18. These middle managers are well paid but refuse to take pay cuts. This was a sticking point for the negotiations, one of them, so I'm told.

[Mulder]

This person said that there are 51 Vice Presidents of AA. There used to be 18. These middle managers are well paid but refuse to take pay cuts. This was a sticking point for the negotiations, one of them, so I'm told.

This is very typical in korporate ("k" because it resembles command and control more than the free market) America.

[Puddleglum]

A friend of mine is a flight attendant for AA. This person said that there are 51 Vice Presidents of AA. There used to be 18. These middle managers are well paid but refuse to take pay cuts. This was a sticking point for the negotiations, one of them, so I'm told.

If this is true, it's a good reason for the flight attendants to be sore. Share the misery is fine by me, but only if it's the same percentage across the board.

PS - I think AA has been running on razor-thin profit margins to try to squeeze the competition out. I think a lot of small airlines will spring up to fill in the niche markets and AA will reemerge serving the bigger markets it can profitably manage.