[gojomo]

But also in a bankruptcy, care is taken to separate out profitable divisions (often for sale to other entities), and those divisions are only valuable if the staff stick around. So one of the first things arranged post-bankruptcy are retention contracts much like the ones in question here.

It's hard to manage a giant company with some runaway losses/liabilities and other profits/assets. It can't be done by op-ed, radio call-in show, or congressional hearing.