[Superman]

Okay. Between bankruptcies, airlines sometimes have to renegotiate expiring union contracts. The visual depiction of this would have the union (workers), pants down, bent over a table while management inserts a length of hot steel in.......oh, nevermind.

At those negotiations, workers give up the Sun, Moon and stars and what they get in return is the ability to perhaps work (subject to layoffs) until the next pants-down experience. Had the union refused to concede the funds in your story, your buddy would be unemployed.

This my friends, is "airline industry deregulation." It's just fascinating that an oligopoly with the economic and national security implications of the airline industry would be opened up as a free-for-all for management to tinker with. Good luck with that. I should start a poll. How many years will it take for the nation to recognize that this industry should not be one of management's playing fields?