Newsflash: Many of America’s airline carriers are in a state of chaos, and that is putting it nicely.  Of course, this has been a popular topic in recent weeks due to the grounding of many American Airlines flights.

However, the problems go well beyond struggling airlines and poor FAA oversight.  In fact, the airlines would lead us to believe that the problems are related to lack of reinvestment in the company.

The American Airlines stock has crashed over the past 12 months, decreasing by more than 20 points to just below nine at the time of this writing.  Thus, stock holders are not happy.  Obviously, the events of recent weeks have been customers unhappy.  And the aforementioned article leads us to believe that at least some workers are unhappy. 

So what is the answer?  This all comes back to the debate of investing in workers vs. appeasing stockholders.  For all the semi-hardships that Google has had over the past year with a stock that has lowered slightly, they are still a great example of the good that can happen when a company reinvests in its workforce.  Google is known for their great work environment, and the success of the company is likely no coincidence.

Of course, the other end of the spectrum is Wal-Mart; a company that is known for treating their employees poorly, yet has had wild success.  These companies are on opposite ends of the spectrum. 

One thing is for sure: American Airlines is not the healthiest of companies right now, and regardless of whether the pilots’ claims are true, something needs to be done for the company to dig out of the hole for its stockholders and its employees.