You have been in negotiations for 5 years. Unfortunately, management has indefinate patience with these matters since you have to just keep working.

I don't know the details of the current ASA contract with respect to work rules(which we all know make a huge difference in total compentation). Based on their pay scale alone, it appears that ASA is one of the better paid regionals after the first year. What concerns me more is the inability of airlines to recruit quality new hires due to the brutal cost of entry into this career. I have the same concern at my company. We really are scrapping the bottom of the barrel. The question is at which point will we start to lose contracts because of our inability to properly staff?

Its all a big shell game in the end, but the "pay raise for us all" mentality really worries me when it comes to negotiation. Again, there is a big difference between making under $20k a year and those making $60k and up. The difference being that you can support a family and adequately protect yourself financially on the latter.

I firmly believe that by recruiting higher quality pilots who may be more inclined to see their regional as slightly more than a stepping stone (you never know when you will get stuck), the entire pilot group will benefit from more active involvement and a sense of ownership in their airline. The standard SJS sufferer just wants to fly the shiny jet and will do anything for it. Those types do nothing to help with contract negotiations.

Maybe I'm wrong and that's not the best approach, but I'm willing to debate it civilly with anyone who's interested.

Edit: Wow that was a long one!