Seniority and 'final salary' pension schemes have always been the 'shackle' that have solidly bolted many pilots into airlines -- to the absolute delight of management!
Final salary pension schemes are one by one being shown to have feet of clay.
Seniority list should go the same way. Present circumstances should speed that up.
Two decades ago I was is one of the UK's major airlines, with a final salary pension scheme and half way up the seniority list. I left for a better lifestyle with those two factors being the most difficult decisions to break from. That airline no longer exists. My final salary pension savings are OK, but underfunded. The airline that I went to had a seniority list and a final salary pension scheme. After a few years there, and massive upheavals in the airline industry, I left again with lifestyle being the deciding factor. That airline no longer exists and the state of the final salary pension scheme has been the subject of articles in business sections of national newspapers (fortunately I did not have many years there). The airline that I next went to had no seniority list nor any pension scheme. I set up my own pension saving (and it has grown well, with only minimal decline over the past few months). The next airline that I joined (again for lifestyle) had a seniority list but final salary pension schemes were then 'out of fashion'. That airline no longer exists. Since then I have worked for two more airlines, one with no seniority system and the present one, well, I don't know, it doesn't bother me any more so I don't pay attention to that as I now have the best lifestyle that I have ever enjoyed in my airline career and the best job security. (As I have saved well more than normal for pensions for a long time, even the current upheavals have not been too bad and I am so thankful that I do not depend heavily on any final salary pensions.)
So, summing up: If I had gone by the mantra that "Seniority Is Everything", I would not be where I am now in a secure job with the best airline lifestyle that I've ever had. I am so glad that I broke from those shackles over two decades ago.
But let's look at this an entirely different way: We have many hundreds of pilots right now who have found their seniority counted for absolutely nothing. If they are employed by 'seniority based' airlines all their experience and expertise counts for nowt and they go to the bottom of the pile. Would I want our medical profession to be like that where a doctor moving from one Trust, District or whatever, has to go to the bottom of the pile and have his talents and experience count for nowt? If I need to see a 'senior' doctor it cannot be that one with that wealth of experience but has to be one who has simply 'been there longer'? What a horrible thought.