When was the time any grassroots movement succeeded? Since the traveling public moans about service but overall is complacent with relatively cheap fares, public pressure won't come from them. Without public pressure, the only force that could influence legislation would be blood priority. You'd essentially need an accident directly resulting from low pilot pay. Colgan is the closest we'll ever come (i.e. commuting across the country, poor working conditions, etc.), but that only changed rest rules, not the economics.

So without the elimination of the Railway Labor Act or some kind of "pilot minimum wage," all we have is the hope that a pilot shortage does drive wages up at lower and then upper levels. So far it looks like regional management would rather lose market share and perhaps even shut down over giving pilots more money. Is that spiteful or is that spiteful?