Ultimately, the bad results have a silver lining; they could force employees to cut their pay earlier and deeper than they originally wanted to. A year ago, union groups at AMR ( AMR ), parent of American Airlines, vowed to veto pay cuts before agreeing to last-minute concessions as the company weighed a bankruptcy filing. "The March quarter results should once and for all convince employees that Delta needs to be restructured -- sooner rather than later," said Linenberg, one of the only analysts to correctly predict Delta's loss. "The extent of the company's deteriorating financials plus growing low-cost carrier competition adds to the sense of urgency."