The by-product of a successful pilot contract is that if you have industry leading pay - someone else is working for less.

Now, think about that in the context of pay for departure agreements. Regional labor getting whipsawed and you attack each other? Amazing.

Pattern collective bargaining only works when the bottom labor groups leapfrog each other to set a new high mark that raises the average pay. As the industry enters another down cycle, forums like this one can (for the first time) provide transparency of issues in near real time across company boundaries.

The industry is primed to real ugly, real fast. The question is to we fight each other over marketing agreements which line pilots have little or no control. Or, do we collectively support each other in the pattern bargaining process?

For those pilots about to endure your first economic down cycle, get ready, it's eye-watering. It's doubly so when your fighting fellow line pilots (regardless of the uniform).

And people ask why we don't have political or religion forums here