Well as a furloughed Midwest guy I can tell you many of us are intelligent enough to know the crooked CEO of Midwest is the reason we are out of work. I stuck it out for 13 years at Midwest because I enjoyed my job and was paid well. I passed an opportunity to join AirTran in 2003 because I knew from friends there that AirTran wanted badly to buy Midwest...and it made good sense...so I thought it was best to ride it out.
What I didn't count on, and who knows why, was the monumental greed and lack of integrity on the part of our CEO. He was more interested in getting an inflated all cash deal for himself and his cronies than selling to AirTran. He called the folks at Northwest to work the deal that came about. He knew it would mean the destruction of MidEx and the loss of thousands of jobs...and he didn't care then or now.
In my 20 years in the profession I have served two terms on an ALPA carrier MEC, been a grievance and scheduling chairman and I think ALPA is a troubled organization...a series of kingdoms that care little about anything but themselves and that has led to a loss of membership and wages for most everyone...it is a weak organization.
Having said that there is little that can be done when you have bad management and a weak contract. Yes...our negotiating committee and MEC knew there were holes in the agreement...they just didn't believe it would be an issue in the life of the contract...hindsight shows otherwise.

I have moved on to another carrier and don't much care about Tim H. and the airline he ruined anymore. Its just business in America sadly...all about greed.

Its sad to see all the pilot-to-pilot bashing I read on these message boards. Just think what might be accomplished if we all worked together to fight the erosion of this profession instead of trading insults about who works for the better airline...managements everywhere must love this dribble.

Fly safe all.