As always it's supply and demand. There are pilots willing to accept the continuously lower standards imposed by the companies each and every day. Young guys and gals live with the assumption that being a pilot is a respected and fruitful profession where you will end up making a good bunch of money. Fact is, new joiners will never have the T&C the guys that have been in the industry for a few years have.
I am myself a pilot with Norwegian and I am lucky enough to be on the good side. I see new "colleagues" in the crew room every day who wears the same uniform and performs the same job but at much lower salary (i.e a ****ty contract). It is no fun. I don't like working in a company where there is an A-team and a B-team.
Many where hoping that the union in DY would stand fast and provide a revolutionary change to the contract-pilot-problem in Europe. Unfortunately it would seem that the reality is somewhat different than that. First of all, CEO Bjorn Kjos is a lawyer himself. He is an extremely tough player who knows this game inside and out. Secondly, it was not even clear that a strike would have been legal which in turn would have meant that had it been deemed illegal, the union would have had their ass sued over and over. BK made it very clear that he had the full right to transfer staff freely in the EU according to the 4 "freedoms" of the EU.
Internal Market - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I believe the future of our profession lies in the legislation. Without proper employment laws and regulations regarding duty times etc we are more or less fukced. Union work must be based upon current legislations. Having many years left in this industry I many times wonder if I will ever wear my uniform with pride again or if I will continue to be that hated employee who costs a lot of money but coincidentally operates advance machinery during all hours of the day and night in adverse conditions under constant time pressure making sure that the every so less paying passengers arrives safely at their destinations...