I never used to believe in unionizing, until one day certain outspoken members (yours truly included) of the pilot body were selected for "special" treatment by management.
Suddenly they could not get any time off when it was important to be with family, like Christmas, Childrens Birthdays, vacation during school holidays etc, all because they had the audacity to speak out for what should have been their rights!
We are all unionized now!
Regarding salary, where I live, inflation in the cost of living has topped 30% in the last 10 years, our pay has increased 9.5% and our productivity has improved in excess of 20%. We didn't press for more money believing that the company couldn't handle it, but somehow they manage to continue wasting resources at an alarming rate.
Now as the market for Pilots is favoring the Pilot rather then the airline, I doubt that the members of our association will continue to pay for the mistakes of management.
For the record, when I started my aviation career, airline Pilots used to earn approximately 5 times per capita income, now it is perhaps 2.5 - 3 times.
Merry Christmas all!