If you are not locked into coming here by a contract, I would bail out now and find a new home. If Dallas is a must, Skywest would be your best bet. While they are not unionized, they do have lots and lots of pilots and a good reputation in the industry. I dont see them going anywhere. In addition, a union is only as strong as management allows in this industry, due mostly to the RLA restrictions. Our union has great people and I can attest they fight the good fight, however a lot of the times they simply cant get things done due to management not wanting to play ball.
You have time to change your path, I would use it wisely. As for us getting pay raises, part of me is thinking that our initial enthusiasm for it happening was wrong. The management here is hostile and has shown that it will terminate, step letter etc for varying degrees of misconduct, regardless of how they handled it in the past.\\
As for upgrades, well I wouldn't say we are "fast" anymore compared to what we had going on a year ago. You can pretty much look at 2-2.5 years at virtually any regional right now, especially if you are willing to move/commute to a junior base/fleet. \
Give it some thought. Last thing, why does Dallas have to be your destination? I understand if family, girlfriend, wife, kids etc, just want to make sure you are not pigeon holing yourself. Did I read that correctly?