Pay rates are no indication of the strength of a union, but rather the economics at point in time. The Delta pilot contract of the 1940's paid about $2.30 per seat per hour, and the pilots were getting 5%ish raises. If you transposed that contract over the 747 today, that would be over $16,500 hr pay rate. Pay cuts and freezes are an inevitable part of the law of exponential functions. Scope contracts however, are the standard by which all others are compared.