To those that would rather do in-house rather than join ALPA, IBT, etc.
Airlines are already in-house unions with individual MECs and basically run indie pendent from the main organization. ALPA and IBT basically provide help when asked. Lawyers for contract negotiation, for instance. However, the main body doesn't influence your individual union very much, including contract negotiations. They're only there to help.
In the end the union is only as good as the employees it represents. Some regionals have very good unions while others don't. Usually you see the bigger operations with more "lifers" have a better union because people there are willing to put in the work to make it that way. However some operations that the majority are just there to get the time and move on to a major get walked all over by the company. This is more to do with the apathy of the local union than anything the national end has ever done.
I think that since SKW is made up of a high percentage of "lifers," is a large group, and has (from what I've seen) some of the best folks in this business, a union will do very well for its members. Regardless of it's affiliation.
My personal opinion is though ALPA national is not in itself very affective, it does offer good benefits to the local unions that has the ability to make a better tomorrow for themselves.
However SKW has done very well for itself without a union and probably would continue to do so. In the end, if the health insurance thing is such a big deal then they will stop getting top-notch pilots to fill the classes. If that's something they truly want, then they would keep the benefits compeitive. Of course, if they don't want or care for the "top 10%" then there's really no reason for them to pay for it.