Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

A little bit of both. Fear unified the pilots and justified the sale of junior pilot jobs to fund benefits (or fewer cuts) to the preferred group of pilots.

I know that you are aware that scope in the last 3 major contracts was the very last thing settled. The pay rates were already done and set in stone before agreements were ever made on scope. While its possible that the company may have agreed on pay rates in anticipation of scope gains those involved in the process don't believe so. There was certainly no direct if you give us X number of 76 seat jets we will raise your pay.
What I find very perplexing is that the junior pilots resist the contract areas that would bring the most job gain the quickest. That is work rule changes. We gave up 2500 jobs pre merger to work rule changes. Post merger that number is larger.
I will never forget a new hire FE telling me how DALPA was screwing him by having a cap of 78 hours at the time. I asked why that was screwing him. He replied he would fly more and make more money if the cap was lifted. I asked him how much money he thought he would make if the cap were removed the next day. He replied he would fly to the FAR's or around 100 hard hours a month and see probably 110 hours a month pay with credit.
I replied that he was wrong. His new pay rate if the cap were lifted would be zero because he would be on the street furloughed. I still don't think he got it.
With the 1113 contract we have essentially become a cap less airline. Every pilot gets to fill out a contract survey. Recapturing some of the work rules we gave up and getting a real cap back on the property will be high on my list even though at my seniority it will not have much effect. Work rule changes that bring back 10 percent of the lost jobs will however be huge for the bottom half of the seniority list.