Crabette
Yes, I agree that even reversion to SFO/FO would be a better option than no job at all. However, your colleague's belief really appears to be the motive here. Wonder where that atmosphere of "trust, integrity and respect" from the management was? The staff show it every day, shame that some of the senior management cannot return it!
Droopystop
Sorry, but you've got it wrong. The pilots only wanted to get themselves back to a level which they enjoyed many years ago (ie equality with their fixed-wing brethren) but had been denied due to the cost-cutting tactics used by the oil industry so that they themsleves maximise their own profits!!
The loss of contracts and jobs is all due to the oil compnaies, or rather one in particular, who want to bring in a new operator on the North Sea when there isn't room for one. That particular oil company since ordering the aircraft it thought it would need for the third operator, has reduced its own commitment in the North Sea so that it doesn't even need all of them now! Yet again the oil companies themselves are to blame here, not the contractors.