I look back on my career and shake my head at what I accepted just to get a few more hours on the next level up, Only did well after leaving to fly overseas. A move that I cannot recommend too highly to anyone wanting to lift themselves out of the poverty cycle.
I know exactly what you mean, with the oversupply in the early 1990s employers could and did take advantage with below award wages and conditions. If you didn't accept then there was always someone who would. Going overseas was the best thing I ever did and I only wish I had been in a position to do it sooner.
Bad employers are crying because they don't have a queue of pilots willing to take whatever they offer and even the good ones are battling with retention as the path to the airlines has sped up.
BTW My mate got a job with Flight West on the F28 and is now with Cathy.