I can only imagine that the folks at Skywest work just as hard as I do at Republic. Hard enough to put our respective companies in the position to make acquisitions when other companies are barely making payroll.

Don't sell yourselves short. Your company Execs just like mine are making money hand over fist and when they toss you a shameful bone like the one displayed here, you should not be glad that they are offering you a raise in a crappy economy, they should be glad that you are showing up to work for a company that doesn't show any value toward you.