Just from an outsider's perception,
management only ever seem to respond to anything that makes them look bad. Ok, so everyone in the industry can see they are incompetant - and from the sound of it, esp at Rex, they don't seem to care. Infact, they even have the nerve to make the pilots look greedy, disloyal and uncaring to the communities they serve - through the media.
Fight fire with fire, its about time the public understood that:
1) you are not the 'glorified bus drivers' that airlines and politicians enjoy making you out to be. You are every bit as qualified as a surgeon, and generally responsible for a lot more lives on a daily basis! You worked hard on little/no money to get where you are, and unlike most surgeons, you are still plugging away back of the clock, and have little/no control over your work life (birthdays, weddings, anniversaries - you have all worked them, and will for the rest of your career!)
2) your employers are making a mint - and their attitude of letting the numbers dwindle to the point of cancelling flights is absolutely no less of an inconvenience to joe bloggs as to pilots going on strike - effectively the company is on strike because it won't compromise. The company is cancelling their flights, not the pilots. (poorly made point i know).
I've had a number of conversations with friends/family/strangers etc recently who blame the 'greedy pilots'. These very people are under the impression that you ALL earn $200,000 a year and spend week long layovers at tropical resorts...
So, make the public understand, make your managers look bad to people outside this industry, and force them into negotiating something fair, and most of all SAFE! Use your unions, like other industries, to get this stuff into the media.
The majority of the pax are not sympathetic to you at the moment - they need to understand. Before these managers destroy YOUR airline and YOUR job.