Horizon already pays more than Skywest, plus Horizon has the 15-20k bonus when starting.
But the Skywest guys basically just voted in a large pay cut (1% per year increase for 4 years of a 5 year agreement which will be an 11% decrease after inflation) in exchange for a vague promise by the company to get more than 100 planes and to do a big chunk of the Alaska flying.
Why would guys go to Skywest for 30k less the first year than Horizon? After that I think Horizon pays 5k a year more.