You are ABSOLUTELY correct. I have whined about our union in the past and am one of those who makes sure I caviot my b!tching with a disclamer that I'm unwilling to volunteer. I know it's a lot of work and there are MANY great union workers/reps in various groups.

In my defense, my ONLY gripe w/ the union has been last contract negotiations and how PBS came about AND the retro checks we got. After all the "we will absolutely, positively not allow PBS into this contract" talk, we have it. As the story goes, it was introduced toward the end of negotations and since it hadn't been discussed until last minute, the NC wasn't really prepared to counter. WRT retro, given the fact that the lump sum $ the company offered was "so large", the union accepted our lame @ss pay rate and then put on the dog and pony about how no mediator in the world would allow us to continue negotiating (not acting in good faith). I have no idea if this was actually what happened. But, the results speak for themselves.

In our union's defense, I mean, it wasn't as epic as the union buffoonery at UAL w/ the Tumi TA. (MEC/LEC were recalled over there to a degree). And it was US that voted this piece of crap in. So there's that.

But I will stand on the ideal that I will NOT vote yes on anything that doesn't pay a RATE equal to that of Big 3/AK (and soon to be everyone else). NO way we vote in a pay rate that is less than industry standard (the ENTIRE US DOMESTIC narrow body standard). I don't care what QoL items are touted and I don't care how much the operation magically improves. The rate is the rate. We can't hire on par w/ what we need w/o it and we can't retain what we got w/o it.