Yes. Not everyone, of course. But I believe each regional has within its membership and MEC (or equivalent) a very vocal and politicaly powerful (relative to itself as a company) group of pilots with that as their prime concern. We saw this play out even when 50 seaters were the dominant RJ. There have been PLENTY of "deal me an ace" moves in good times and in bad at the regional level. Make it a matter of survival and the pattern of predatory bargaining by being the lowest bidder will get even more severe.

While I'm sure you want to be "paid fairly" if you are ever going to get bigger jets, by definition you never will be paid fairly because the only reason a regional would get the flying to begin with is if they did it a lot cheaper, and pilot costs are one of the biggest variables in that particular cost/savings matrix when it comes to management. You will not only have to SIGNIFICANTLY underbid mainlines, you will also have to underbid everyone else who is underbidding mainlines to get it (you being your regional airline, not you specifically).

Even in the midst of the slaughterhouse culling of RJ's we are currently seeing, as well as the gutting of the contracts and seniority lists of once powerful regionals, there are still politically powerful pilots within every regional (even the ones being gutted the most) who honestly think they are pearched atop a position of power to defend "their" flying, all the while having a hair trigger to correct someone at mainline who wishes to defend "their" flying because to them that is not fair. Statements like "you sold that flying and now it belongs to me" are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that mentality. While being the first to levy the charge of arrogance at a mainline group, within this contingent you see not only arrogance themselves, but political wrecklessness, dellusions of strength, the perception of lack of respect combined with nothing to lose and the grim reality of financial survival. Do not put anything past anyone with that mentality.