The article obliquely addresses this. They mention that the company could agree to a 24% pay raise (over time) because using they had already reduced employment

The article obliquely addresses this. They mention that the company could agree to a 24% pay raise (over time) because using they had already reduced employment by 30%. It's still a net positive. What they can't do is reduce staffing further if they're already operating with a skeleton crew, which is what additional time off would do. This appears to be one of those cases where efficiency and resilience in a system are at odds.