Economics and evolution
This is not to bash anyone, but Lots of employees who end up working for/at airlines; majority of pilots, probably all mechanics, air waiters, & ground staff simply don't understand the economics involved in running and ensuring an airline stays profitable, and how to ensure that they have a pension plan when they retire.
It's amazing if u look at the income stmts of SW over the last ten years and the new kid on the block, jet blue, how much cash revenue they generate......They actually bank/invest that cash for rainy days like when 9-11 happened and/or fuel prices go through the roof. At the other airlines, the employees under the stewardship of the "get it while u can unions" start plotting how they can get a huge piece of the pie over the nxt contract period, based on the most recent income and cash flow.
The morons running the unions at these faltering legends, herd the new employees into membership and blindly get them to wring every last dollar out of the revenues when the airlines have been profitable for a few quaters, and the new contract is up.
U wonder who's laughing now, the Southwest captain who gets about $150k a year plus profit bonuses, sure retirement benefits, or the united captain who made about 300K for about a year and a half starting around 2001,, and goes to sleep wondering if his airline will even exist next year, let alone his pension.
Sometimes mgmt sucks, but most unions let employees down even more, Unions need economists and financial investors to be heading them, not die hard morons, otherwise, they do more harm than good.