The 5 most important things we learned since our last contract (in order of importance):

5. Lots of ancillary items like health insurance costs, short call costs, DC to 18% (like everyone else), etc.
4. Reserve rules. Too many improvements need to list but the big ones are # of times converted from LC to SC, movements to RSV B and E, etc and certainly only having 12 days off per month. Changing #3 below to 5.3 hours min day (to include reserve days) would solve this easily.
3. Average duty period. We definitely learned the hard way on this one. Needs change to either a min day (of 5.3 min) or the trip/duty rig.
2. Pay rates. When prospective candidates are looking for jobs, the #1 thing they look at are pay rates. QoL could be top notch but if rates severely lag, recruiting and retention are difficult. Both the company AND the pilot force need competitive rates - and since it seems the Big 3 are all gonna have just about the same rates (after AA rework and snap up provisions), until we match, this will always be an issue.
1. And singularly most important - Grievance process and consequences. Every contract is only as good as its ability to be enforced. We have all learned the hard way through this and with all the grievances we have, the way the company changes pairing construction philosophy, Section 19 usage, etc, we most certainly need better way to protect ourselves vs. the company not following the contract.