The problem is most people on this regional forum don't have a career, we have a job. There is a big difference. If ALPA wanted the support of all their members they would of taken on the domestic issues first and united the membership. They didn't and the result is thousands of members like me, I have a job, not a career and don't care about NAI or some pre-clerance facility in the Middle East. I get the threat but I really don't care. I do not have, nor does it appear I will ever have a career in this industry while living in the US.

It is indeed about you, the majority of those 15,000 pilots have had a vote and choices. If you want to see the problem look in the mirror, for every bad concessionary contract there was a majority of pilots voting for it. Face it you are weak and management knows it. You made bad choices from the time you spent 100K on your training for a 20K job, your "desire and need" to fly put you right where you sit. You think you are "owed" what? You want it, you gotta take it.....

For the sake of argument:
For whom is the threat of the game greater? The struggling regional pilot stuck at $37000/yr with nothing but empty promises or the pilot who's made it to the big leagues?

We could say this industry was lost the day Major pilot unions signed scope away for pay raises. Just because some people think this way does not mean we all do. It also does not mean it is the end of the industry because someone thinks this is a good Idea and you do not. I do not support foreign airlines coming here with all of their schemes. How ever I do understand the OP's point of view and respect his opinion. There are a lot of us who have been burnt badly in our short careers. We here a lot of it is just our entitlement attitude but when age 65 was passed we could not speak up against it with out getting harassed that we didn't understand what is like to lose your retirement right before you retire. And they are right, We will not have any kind of retirement other then a 401k we will have spent 6-8 years making under 45k a year some of us well under it all well most of us have student loan debt. We also hear about how we have to earn a job to go to mainline and not expect a flow. Some of us think that if we are a wholly owned we are earning our major partner a profit and we are putting our time in and feel this should be us earning our way. We both work for the same INC why not allow us to step up to the big leagues if we have shown we are a good employee. Some of the Pilot at the majors didnt earn it the same way others have. We have all been hired at different times when their were different needs of each airline. My point is we all could do a with a little more humility and trying to understand where others are coming from. And then use that to help build a better industry.

Which part of the Constitution was that again? Or was it the Bill of Rights?
Entitlement at its worst.....

I get that, my days at a regional airline (to 135 rules) felt the same way some 20+ years ago. It sucked then, I'm sure it sucks now and I completely empathize with the pain of career stagnation. When I was hired I worked with guys who stagnated in the 60's and 70's and flew almost 20 years as a flight engineer. I had about 4500 hours regional PIC to even be near competitive (in addition to the MIL flight time) to go a major.

I don't want to come across as some old timer telling "back in my day" stories. I only offer it as perspective on how slowly this industry can, and has churned pilot manpower. There aren't enough guys in the regional ranks right now to cover retirement and growth at the majors, the future is truly yours if you don't blow it.

It's ironic that the guys who have the least to lose are leading the fight on NAI. I'll be retired before the industry falls apart. The issue IS a threat to regional pilots and their future career opportunity. To fail in defeating NAI will cement the fact that you'll only ever have a job, not a career. Sincerely, good luck.

My point is that non of us have truly earned the right to be where we are in the pilot totem. We all got to where we are based upon a multitude of factors (market forces, timing, bad luck/good luck, knowing the right people, being a slave to the man, rule changes etc.) Just because a curmudgeon of a captain made it one way, doesn't make it the only or right way of making it up the ranks. To me, it seems the group of people who keep throwing the entitlement card into the discussion are the ones who are least in touch with today's reality that the younger pilot cadre face.

Yeah, I EARNED my right to fly as long as I'm allowed to fly or want to fly. I could retire now, but being senior, the schedule is like a part time job and I earn over $300K, so I would be stupid to retire.

Just because you are qualified on paper doesn't mean that you get to have a job at a major handed to you without earning it by going through a thorough interview and screening process, like all of us did. Call it "Defending the Profession" if you will. We at the majors only want the "best of the best" working alongside. So if you think are ready to become one of us, apply, interview and get selected like we did. Then we will accept you as one of us.

Sweet and sour grapes man. Life isn't fair. Sometimes the best hand is knowing when to fold. Showing a little "labor price elasticity" in your vocational choices would serve you hung-start regional types well.

Anyone that went to an aviation university and got saddled with many tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt all for a twenty thousand dollar a year job, isn't very smart and deserves the situation they willingly and knowingly put themselves into.