Recent financial trouble at US Airways and United has caused airlines to pressure their workers into making concessions. Workers and their unions are reluctant to accept lower wages and benefits, but they do not want to see their jobs disappear either. If US Airways fails to survive, it would throw 28,000 more workers into unemployment. If forced to find jobs in other industries, airline workers will lose years of seniority.
See "Workers Face Difficult Choices as Airlines Seek Concessions", Micheline Maynard, The New York Times, September 19, 2004