Oh relax would you, I am just tired of HEARING all about Xjet from my friends who work there.....THATS IT BUDDY! A Regionals a regional to an extent.....excluding places like msa tsa colgan....for the most part, AWAC, XJET, ASA, Skywest, Comair, Chataq, etc. etc. etc.. are pretty similiar.... RELAX

Back to the topic,

A labor-tolerant President is a pre-requisite for any job action undertaken to protect the profession. While Geo. W. clearly is not on our side, Republicrat or Demipublican labels don't make much difference.

Hillary was on the BOD of Wal-Mart. I'm not sure if that makes her a Liberative or a Conservable, but I would say it makes her not the most Labor friendly candidate on the trail. Of course, any candidate banking the kind of cash the front runners are is probably going to favor business intrests over labor - Labor Unions can't compete with that kind of Jack, because 1) There are a lot fewer Union members than there used to be. and 2) The ones that are left are making (relatively) less than thier predecessors, and thus have less money to bribe, er, contribute to Pols.

But an active Union membership can still make a difference. 2000 was decided by hundreds of votes in FLA. If all the hotel maids in MIA were unionized, and block voted for the popular vote winner... well, we'd be writing a very different history book.

An active Union membership can make as big a difference in your congressional districts too, which is perhaps more important long term. A pro labor Congress can stymie an executive trying to roll back our rights. Rights gained 100 years ago. Rights literally paid for with men's lives. If you will support your Union's political activity with your time, talent and treasure, you Union will become more important to the Pols, thus more powerful, and thus more able to deliver the results we are looking for.

To mix metaphors, we may have lost our home run threat (the strike), but we can still play small ball and win the game. Its harder, will take longer, and clearly isn't as sexy, but it is an achievable outcome.

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Didn't Clinton stop one of the legacy (UAL?) carriers from walking?

Political parties aside, nothing is going to change until EVERBODY on the front lines steps up. All we hear in the media is how poor customer service is. How the pilots, flight attendants, CSRs, rampers, ATC and so forth is doing a crappy job. We're working harder, for less while the executives are making bank and giving themselves bonuses. You get asshats like Carty who get fired from AA only to be picked up by Virgin America.

It's time for all of us to step it up, picket, take out ads in local papers, whatever it takes. The paying customer only sees us. They only see the two hour delays. They don't realize that we may not be getting paid during those delays. They'll never understand that we're sitting on the ramp because we value our lives and the lives of our passengers much more than we'd value flying through a TS and risking it. They don't understand that we don't all make six figures and work ten days per month. We need to do something about it, but rather than "look at how rough I have it" we need to do something different. Something like "we work our butts off for less than we made 10 years ago and our bosses keep giving themselves raises."

We are our own worst enemies. You'll always have somebody that's willing to do the same job for less just to say they do it. There are people willing to pay four years worth in salary at a pilot factory to "get a leg up". This is where it needs to stop. Have some damn respect for yourself, and others in this profession.

regionals all over fly mainline routes now. its not cool but it happened. and the regionals didn't decide to do it... the mainline carriers did. regionals are just contracted cheaper labor.