DOES STRIKE INSURANCE MATTER - EVIDENCE FROM THE AIRLINE INDUSTRYS MUTUAL AID PACT

Despite a conducive environment airline strike insurance did not signi ficantly affect flight attendants' and mechanics' earnings and depress ed pilots' earnings by a barely statistically significant 3 percent. T hese results cast doubt on previous assertions that the demise of stri ke insurance, precipitated by the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act, impro ved 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.