In a time of crisis, most employees will see the light and take some sort of sacrifice in the short term to help the business and save their own job.
Airline executives have a habit though of never returning the favour in the 'good times'. IAG have made accumulated post tax profits of over 10bn EUR since 2014, even with a cash neutral Iberia. Whilst pay and conditions remained constant or went down for everyone. Please also don't forget that this isn't 12,000 pilots - this is everyone. Engineers, dispatchers, cabin crew, back office staff. Guys who are already paid vastly inferior sums without such a powerful union and, like in many airlines, have gradually had their T&Cs regressed over time.