When you reach your 5-yr point, your current contract automatically renews. If the contract terms change, they change for everyone at once. The last time they tried to change any of the terms, there was, shall we say, unrest among the ranks. It ultimately didn't happen. The last change of any consequence was the addition of E190 rates to the pay schedule, and it was not well received. The contract (absent the new pay scale) hasn't changed substantially from the beginning of oparations.

Some QOL items (scheduling, flight and duty limits, some pay policies, etc.) aren't even written into contract terms, only incorporated by reference. If there is much dissatisfaction, it will be found there. For good or ill, those terms can be easily changed. So far there has been willingness to take pilot input and change them for the better, but that's not the same as having contract language. As things stand now, with this management team, I haven't had any problem with this approach, but I suspect some on this board disagree.