What you'll find, sir, is that major airline pilots learned a long time ago that they don't get what they deserve - they get what they negotiate. I'll wager you use that philosophy youself in running a business.
Now when times get tough things can be renegotiated. Or in Delta's case, they invoke "force majeure" to claim inability to comply with the contract. The pilots are fighting this, of course - you telling me you wouldn't? Pay cuts will come either way, it just takes some bluster on both sides. This is business - the "Delta Family" perished at the hands of Allen in the early nineties.
Amd a word about customer service: don't let the neat commercials playing during the world series, or the sugary PA announcements of the captains fool you - pilots are most certainly NOT in the service business. They are in the SAFETY business. They are proud, arrogant, and full of themselves - and believe it or not, some dark nights you need all that ego, and more. Imagine holding up 400 people on an intercontinental flight because you don't like the forecast, or something in the paperwork doesn't look right. You don't expect a "customer-oriented" attitude of your surgeon, your policeman, or your lawyer - best not to look for it from your cockpit, either.