Texaspilot76 -

In light of the fact that you may be fairly new to the industry I will attempt to cut you some slack. The notion that a strike does not affect you is ludicrous. Look at what happened to Comair after the strike. They completely paralyzed Delta at CVG and MCO. One of the fallouts from the strike was that Delta along with nearly every other major airline diversified their regional fleets. This meant instead of one or two regionals serving an airline you have multiple regionals performing the flying.

Does that impact you? Absolutely. Management at every regional is feeling the squeeze because of the highly competitive marketplace right now. "Comair you won't operate the RJ for x amount of dollars then Pinnacle will. Or maybe Skywest. How about Expressjet?"

Want to negotiate a raise in a new contract? Ask ASA, Pinnacle, Comair, anyone post 9/11 how easy that is. The Comair strike set a president and was a benchmark contract that they hoped other regionals would follow. Instead no one got close. 9/11 hit and they were affected like everyone else. As DAL now had multiple regionals at every hub there was no longer leverage in negotiations. No regional has it anymore. So yes, that strike still impacts you nearly seven years after it happened.

When a strike happens its not an 8th grade school yard fight. You are literally putting your financial security, job security and well being at risk. You are betting that management and the union will come to an agreement before the company is dissolved. If there is no agreement, ask the Eastern guys how hard it was to find a job following the demise. Many of them never were able to secure employment as a pilot again. By authorizing a strike, you are letting the union know you stand behind them should they call on you to withdraw your services. You are telling management that you would rather risk everything than work under your current agreement and working conditions. A strike is the most powerful tool a union has but it should only be used as a last resort. Truthfully, a strike indicates that both sides failed in their duties to negotiate a contract.

The Comair strike succeeded because the pilot group went 89 days with no scabs. There was total solidarity among the group. I'm not sure if that would be repeated today. I reference your remarks about how it doesn't affect you. No offense but that is the mantra of the "me" Y generation. Only looking out for number one. As a result, since most regionals are now comprised of the Ys, they will have a harder time motivating everyone to stay the course for the union not the individual. Time will tell.