Any advice to a former long time regional guy on how to gauge leverage and not become too passive? I don't have a frame of reference except the regionals. I'm in year 4 and still in my honeymoon phase and feeling awash with privilege and riches. Compared to the regional grind my life has improved immensely in every possible way. I was a lot more militant in the regionals because I knew dam well I was being exploited, whipsawed, and getting a tiny crumb of the pie. Now, the status quo feels amazing when it used to be torture. Before I had what was happening at mainline to compare myself to, whereas now I am at mainline. Before I knew DAM WELL I was getting robbed and disrespected, now I'm getting treated and compensated how I felt I deserved.

Everything after the present is a new horizon and a situation I've never been in. I've never been in a pilot group with any power or say in anything at all. In the regionals we were at the whim of the market and whipsaw. We got raises when the company was forced by cancelling flights for lack of pilots, not because we negotiated or used any labor power. I've never had to look at contract cycles in this way. How do I not get too complacent? How do you actually gauge how high or low the bar should be? How bold should we be? How confident can we be in our ability to use legal job actions. How concerned should we be for the long term stability of the company? I don't even know what questions I should be asking. I just know this will be my first new contract at a mainline job and it's hard for me to imagine anything being better than this, while also feeling lost at how to approach this new situation.

I don't want to needlessly vote yes on something when it makes no sense just because I still have regional pilot brain.