The thread is a good illustration of a couple of things that are broken in the airline industry:
1) Seniority systems don't allow employees to shop around their talent to other companies when they feel like they are undercompensated or unfairly treated.
2) Companies have little control over the image they present on the front line. This situation is exacerbated by organized labor because disgruntled employees tend to feel like the have broad consensus for their "cause" whether well-founded or not. It only takes a couple of like-minded employees to cause a scene.
If it were up to me, I would pay top-end compensation packages for employees who had the choice to leave the company if they were unhappy. That would leave me with an expensive yet happy workforce.
