I'm sure you meant this statement for dramatic affect but we are NOT unprotected. We most certainly maintain all of the same "protections" we've always had as per the CBA. There ARE airlines bigger than ours that don't have pilot unions (or at least recently hadn't) so the sky is not falling because of our union woes. This airline/pilot force was due a correction - as I mentioned many times before - due to the purveyance of a sub-market labor rate. Subpar pay is fine for the short term but market forces were never going to hold and a reckoning was needed. It's almost decent timing given DL's early opener a few weeks ago and luckily there are 2 outcomes that will be produced - this airline will either find a way to be profitable paying market pay rates or it will continue to struggle. The ONLY way forward is via direct competition and the "merits" of the airline will need to win customers.

So, the question of "are we next?" is pertinent. But the answer has little to do w/ a temporarily disabled union...