I hate to stir the pot but the one of the other large reasons the union drive failed were the idiots who they had trying to organize us. Career regional guys with an axe to grind or MECs from other companies who pretend to know our company culture....that is not who most young, junior guys are looking to for career advice. I interned at a major and worked in a department that saw a great deal of company-union interfacing, I saw the benefits and drawbacks of a union and I didn't once hear any of the longer term, true union benefits mentioned by the SkyWest guys. If guys from airlines with good union-company relations like Continental, South West or Fedex came in and told our pilots that a union can have a great relationship with the company as long as you keep good guys on the board, then perhaps ALPA would have stood a chance. Another problem in my mind is that the same guys who are organizing will be running for the ALPA positions and I'd personally much rather SAPA negotiate my next "agreement" then them. If Mike Macias, Jeremy Petersen, et al kept their positions with whatever organization would succeed SAPA, I'd vote for that, but the chance of getting some dingbats that tick off the company scares a significant amount of people. Future union drives will need guys with more tact, intelligence and perspective rather than frustrated, opinionated and largely emotionally driven organizers.

All just one man's opinion on a complex matter