Fiftytard. Can you tell me, outside of a CBA, what you would want that would make you stop complaining. If we had the best retirement and health bennies in the industry would you still complain.
OK, even if we stipulate that we have the best pay, retirement, working conditions, etc., that the industry has ever seen, and it's all guaranteed for life, free laptops, Kew shuttle, etc., etc., etc., ad nauseam, it doesn't mean squat because we're naked after a transactional event. A CBA means different things for different people, but what it means for most is a process whereby we're not utterly exposed, leaderless, voiceless, powerless if we're involved in a TE. No, they're not foolproof, far from it, and there are plenty of situations when a CBA isn't worth the paper it's printed on. That doesn't mean that we can safely ignore the requirement for one.
A CBA is career insurance, period. Sometimes you're in a bad enough situation that no insurance can make you whole, or even standing, but there are plenty of other situations when you'd be a fool not to have it. Right now, we're fools, one fender bender away from losing it all.