Alright, EDITlet's look at a couple case studies in which the unions ended up shooting themselves in the foot with this mentality.
The Boeing machinists union has for decades been a very hostile/greedy group that chanted that very line about how the company should keep itself profitable but they also deserve huge wage hikes. The two are mutually exclusive, and the union discovered that the hard way when their jobs were sent to non-union workers in South Carolina. Oops. Maybe they should have played ball so they could keep their jobs.
The auto industry was brought down mainly by greedy unions. We don't need to go into detail because everyone knows how well compensated auto machinists were when they helped cause GM and Chrysler to go tango uniform.
Yes, it's the pilots jobs to look out for themselves, but not to the extent that it brings the company down. Obviously the company would never sign a TA that would put it out of business. But say--hypothetically--some XJTALPA-flavored kool-aid drinkers are able to organize pilots to defeat a reasonable, competitive TA (hypothetically, since we don't know whether the TA will be reasonable or competitive yet, because we haven't read it, and therefore we can't legitimately say whether we'll vote yes or no), the company will either have to waste a lot of time negotiating a new TA that raises our costs significantly and prices us--and our jobs--out of the market, or continue with the status quo which may end with the same result for one or both pre-merger sides.
Yes, airline pilots deserve to be paid more than they are, and yes we deserve mainline-style work rules at the regionals. But we are living in reality, not a Democrat/left-wing dreamland where we get everything we deserve. There are snakes in the grass in the form of shady ultra low cost regionals (e.g., BlowJetz) that will take our flying in an instant if we price ourselves out of the market. And then you won't have your "snapback" because you don't even have a job.
And believe me, knowing Jerry and the St George gang, things will surely *not* work out in PMXJT's and reacharound's favor if they scuttle the TA. That's just the reality of the situation.
