I'll take a stab at it...I am on the ERJ side with 7+ years...

Before ATL took over, pay claims/payroll issues were so infrequent that I never could remember the process for submitting them. I'd estimate maybe 2-3 payroll issues per YEAR and then it was usually only when something really weird happened to your schedule. I would actually have to ask someone in the crew room or look it up every time I needed to submit one because I had forgotten in the six months since my last one. Pay issues were usually corrected within a few days, a week at most.

Now fast-forward to post-ATL takeover. Pay issues are a regular occurrence, especially for reserves. I probably submit 2-3 per MONTH now. And the time to correct them can sometimes be weeks. Most of us on the ERJ side joke that payroll auditing is our second job. Issues include little things like being shorted customs or deadhead pay all the way up to having an entire 4-day trip I had flown removed/not credited (then the issue being corrected...to someone elses paycheck...THAT was a mess...). I have also heard of over payments from other crew members and the company just withdrawing that money from people's accounts without saying a word. Had one FA who was bouncing checks all over town because the company had overpaid her then taken back $400 without informing her. Spent most of the trip on her phone with the bank trying to figure it out.

So to say that payroll since the merger has been a CF is accurate at best and an understatement at worst. Now all that in perspective, this is still not a bad place to be right now given the current regional landscape. Is there uncertainty about the future? Sure. But I'll take a solid contract NOW and decent pay NOW over promises for the future.