Does strike insurance matter? Evidence from the airline industry's mutual aid pact

Despite a conducive environment airline strike insurance did not significantly affect flight attendants' and mechanics' earnings and depressed pilots' earnings by a barely statistically significant 3 percent. These results cast doubt on previous assertions that the demise of strike insurance, precipitated by the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, improved unions' relative bargaining power Furthermore, the ineffectiveness of one of the most promising strike insurance pacts could explain the small number of such agreements in U.S. industries.