JMP
I would suggest many SJ pilots don`t want to be SJ pilots (long term), and just use SJ as either a stepping stone to somewhere else (how did your Dragon interview go?) or - now - a backdoor into Air NZ.
F35/JMP - Scope clauses for SJ and Mt Cook are certainly there to protect the pay and conditions of Air NZ pilots, but this has a trickle down effect to every professional pilot. If an Air NZ 747 captain was only getting paid $50k, what would a Saab/ATR/Beech captain be getting? If you have been an airline pilot for a while (over the honeymoon period) you realize all that matters is time off and money. Their is a balance to be struck, but even better - why not have both! The company, of course, would rather you had neither (although not necceserily for malicious reasons - their imperitive is to make a buck) and so a balance is sort between the two parties, negotiaitions take place (enter ALPA) and hopefully a win-win contract is agreed to. A good contract is harder to achieve when some pilots are willing to buy ratings or bypass seniority with DEC just to get that coverted `jet job`. And when that `jet job` doesn`t pay that well or give you the time at home with the kids, you can then aspire (by leaving or moving to the big-companies seniority list) for a better job. Which perhaps explains the turn-over of pilots at Freedom.
Back to my question in my previous posting - given the pay/conditions/no super etc at Freedom, why apply when Air NZ is hiring flat out?