Carruthers,
Please don't assume that we have only been educated to 'cleaning staff' level such as your goodself! A fair percentage of us have degrees in relatively academic subjects such as aeronautical engineering, chemical engineering, quantity surveying etc. So trying to make sense of a balance sheet doesn't really pose a great problem. As for being qualified to do anything else, a number of us run projects outside of flying ranging from property management to a lawnmower repair business.
We are all exremely concerned about the wellfare of the company and our pay and conditions. After 9/11 we agreed to a pay freeze in return for some form of redress at a later stage. Now we have reached that later stage and things have gone rather quiet!