QUOTE=MinRest;3748322]The "economist" and visibility of the true scope of economics, is sketchy at best. There is really little to no true economic transparency and that is fully by design and on purpose. There is also an element that the overall economic status of the company is irrelevant. Are the pilots paid in a way representative of the industry? The sad answer to that is kinda yes...

If NJASAP wanted to be truly industry-leading, They would have carved their own path with truly industry-leading contractual language. That has never happened at the hands of NJASAP. Gains given were really at the hands of management, not union/pilot pressure. The belief and narrative is otherwise, but the truth is that NJASAP hasn't really kept the pilot group in line with the airline industry because it will never be able to.[/QUOTE]

You are partially right that it doesn't matter how much they are making- they will only pay what we make them pay, but by admitting to huge profits, they have made a lot of pain for themselves and may have to pay way up for once. If they wanted to take advantage of the lack of transparency, they would have cooked the books a bit in the other direction to get us fight less and settle sooner. It matters because the group knows that for once they can pay what we want if we can take it.

You are correct that the leadership didn't have to organize a fight to accept free money in 2007, 2018, and 2020. 2018 was weird in that the group just didn't care anymore and was only willing to give 60% effort for 60% pay of the majors. This was crushing operations, but it wasn't the leadership being told by the membership to fight and it wasn't the leadership leading the union to fight. It was just a whole lot of apathy that needed financial lubrication to solve. 2005 and 2015 were totally different things. Both went beyond apathy. Both were lead by the union leadership at the time (Teamsters in 05 and NJASAP in 15) and both made the company give in. In 2005, most of the group didn't care if the company failed and most of the group participated. In 2015, most didn't want it to burn down, but the majority did participate in forcing the max gains that the union economists said they could pay without crippling the company. The current fight is just sad. The membership is told leadership they want to fight and they want massive, once in a lifetime improvements. Unfortunately, so far, the majority both isn't willing to burn it down and isn't willing to make the sacrifice to unify and force the issue. The membership is the union and the union so far isn't up to getting better than the second "Last, Best Offer". It isn't over yet, but I doubt we will get to majors parity across the board- even if we get the pay up, I don't see any sabre rattling for 18 to 20% company retirement contributions and true, hard QOL improvements beyond more pay for bad scheduling. In short, you are correct that NJASAP hasn't kept up with the majors, but not that it was always just the company giving it all and the union not earning anything.