I agree....at some point you park the helicopter and engage in a most direct and frank conversation.
In general I am against striking as there are other avenues available that can be just as effective and keep the pay checks coming in.
Sometimes "Work to Rule" using the Ops Manual and Company SOP's can result in gaining acceptance by management that some changes are needed.
Striking should be the last step in such a process but when all of the staff walk off....that puts a lot of pressure upon management to find a solution.
I watched a manager break a Union while I was flying corporate out in the Pacific Northwest.
Day one of the Contract Negotiations he accepted every one of the Union demands....all of them.
Then he set out what the Company wanted which were very simple and reasonable.
The Union Leadership would have nothing of it and solicited a Strike Vote from the members.
We were forced to fly the Company Rep in due to the picket lines around the mill.
As I was quite friendly with many of the Mill workers they would approach me at the picket line and we would talk.
When the word got out what the strike was really about following a Company Press Release to the local news outlets...and that the company had agreed to all of the union's initial demands....the folks voluntarily left the picket line and returned to work and in a later vote dissolved the Union.
So it works both ways.
I am solidly on the side of anyone that is trying to improve their lot in life and if it means striking then that is fine.
The danger to it is the hard feelings that crop up during that process and the hardship it poses on those trying to get those pay raises and other improvements.
Are other Union Pilots or the Union offering financial support for the strikers?
Without that then the Strikers are going to be under quite a bit of financial stress.
Who has the deeper pockets in this...the Company or the Strikers?
In the Contracts between the Customers and the Company....any "Strike Clauses"?
Who is picking up the slack....are the Customers able to find the necessary support from other Operators whose Pilots are not honoring the Bristow Strike?
One thing that made the Teamsters Union so strong in the United States is other unions would honor those picket lines and not cross them and in return the Teamsters would not cross other Union's picket lines.