I agree whole heartedly, the industry needs to shrink... hence the capacity cuts that are already occurring. However, what would you be trying to accomplish with an nationwide strike? More money? Job Protection?? Good luck.

The airlines are a business -- PERIOD!! The airlines are not in existence to make you and me money at all. In the eyes of the airlines, we are the problem. That is why you will NEVER see the airlines lobbying congress for more stringent rules regarding pilot qualifications, crewrest, and training. They WANT a giant pool of pilots available. Why wouldn't they?? They can pick and choose the best and brightest among us. If we don't like it... no problem...they'll get the next guy in line to step up who is just as "qualified" (according to the FAA) as you or I. Aside from the recent tragedy with the Colgan accident, safety is at an all time high. As much as people gripe and complain about the pay and work rules, people below us in the commercial aviation pipeline are chomping at the bit to fill our shoes. Face it, there are enough people that can "meet the current FAA standards" who will accept the wages that are already in place.

Obviously, I'm a big believer in free market capitalism, supply and demand, yada yada. I would love to make more money!!! All the years as a professional pilot, time away from home, instructing, military deployments, ramen noodles, jet lag, and lack of sleep lead us to say, "Gosh darn it... I'VE PAID MY DUES!!" When we go to a SWA, DAL, FEDex, UPS, etc... we feel entitled to the pay day!!

At the end of the day, the airline industry doesn't care about your feelings, the size of the fleet, domestic vs. international, number of cities, or anything else. It cares about making MONEY!! If doing the above things makes money, then they'll do it!!

As I said in a previous thread, if you want to raise the pay, then you've got to "up the FAA standards" to weed out the riff raff. People love to fly!! It truly was my childhood dream as I'm sure it was for many of you. Because of this love affair with aviation, there will always be an abundance of folks who will do it for peanuts. The airlines know it all too well. As much as I think our profession deserves generous financial compensation due to the years of training and sacrafice it takes to make it to the big airlines, I am at my core a strong believer in businesses controlling their costs to stay competitive. I would love a COLA every year. Who wouldn't!?!? Having a union strong arm a business to give COLA when they're losing money really isn't making the company economically viable. All you have to do is look at GM and Chysler.

Don't get me wrong!!! What is happening at airlines like Midwest, UAL, and AMR with domestic codeshare is criminal. Furloughing people and then codesharing the same routes is flat out wrong. This is where Scope and codeshare protection is so important.

What I'm ultimately saying is that any business has the obligation to its shareholders to make money, stay competitive and keep costs down.

Fire away...