Labour strife mounts for both US Airways and American as creditors weigh potential merger

Intrigue around the potential American-US Airways merger has been resurrected during the last couple of weeks as current management from each carrier has reportedly met with American's creditors' committee to persuade its members to lean towards their preferred outcome - in the case of US Airways a merger, and with American, possibly an emergence from Chapter 11 as a stand-alone entity. But as creditors weigh the merits of the business plans laid out to them, each airline continues to face challenges in their current labour relations that stand to snowball if the creditors ultimately bless a combination of the fourth and fifth largest US carriers based on domestic share.

US Airways was forced to tone down its public push for a merger with American beginning in Aug-2012 when the two companies signed a non-disclosure agreement that allowed the airlines to trade more in-depth information in their due diligence to determine if a merger was the best course to take going forward. American's initial strong opposition to the tie-up has waned significantly over the course of the last few months, but publicly management is still pushing to emerge from its year-long bankruptcy reorganisation as a stand-alone entity.