I suppose that if there is a stike at Delta soon, the company will tank. Then everyone, including the pilots, will end up screwing themselves while the executives will land softly elsewhere on golden parachutes.

It makes no sense to strike when a company is on the verge of collapse... I say weather the storm and when things get better, demand for pay raises. If that doesn't work, at least then a stike would not destroy the company, but make it lose enough money to get investors to pressure management to talk to the unions.

I've been reading quite a few threads here and it seems that there is a high level of pride on the employee side of the airlines... so much so that they are willing to destroy a company and put themselves out of work rather than work for less. It must be understood that the airline industry is a high cost, low margin industry with little competative advantages between companies (especially when everything that an airline does in terms of strategy is a matter of public record).

As long as there are more pilots than there are airline jobs, airlines will push for lower wages... and as long as people are willing to pay no more than $79 each way to Fort Myers, airlines are not going to raise salaries either.