I'm pretty sure our management would pay us 0% payrise every year if we had no union. What are we going to do about it? Will every pilot go into the manager's office and demand a pay rise? The one thing the union does is fight our side and ballot the members, to allow an "anonymous" strength of feeling vote. I personally would not be prepared to stick my neck out, not knowing if I was the only one, and walk into the managements office every year to ask for a payrise (even if it were just inflation). Personally, I'd rather pay BALPA the 1% to do that dirty work for me. We generally end up with more than the company's first offer.