Amen brothers. I agree we shouldn't sell ourselves short, but I also agree that strength comes through aircraft on the property. How strong will we be if we allow the flying to continue to be outsourced. We could have been 17000 strong. We are now 12,400 strong. We could be 8000 strong if we don't recapture the outsourced flying. Get the planes on the property. It did us no good 8 years ago to be flying 777s for $335/hour. We only got seven of them. A very small percentage of the guys lived the good life, but that's it. The vast majority were stuck in planes smaller than that, that paid less. More airplanes on property=more opportunities through upgrades, etc.

I'm facing another 15% paycut this fall if I get displaced off the 757. That's on top of the 50% paycuts from the last few years. Couple that with the COL increases of the past 8 years and my purchasing power is 80% less than it was in 2001. I'm sick of the erosion and the feeling that as long as I'm okay than the other guys can fend for themselves. I think Chamberlain felt he was doing the right thing with the Germans 70 years ago by appeasement and looking the other way. We can no longer afford that thinking.