Hi SF, and happy new year to you too.
When I started it was full salary from day one, payed hotel for the duration of training AND allowances.
This was the way of it in my last company. 2 sector days, hour and a half between turn arounds, 5 star hotels when down route.....ah, the luxury of it, ah the waste. The world seemed rather good as I perused the pages of the Financial Times......or so I thought. Needless to say, my last company went down the drain, finally collapsing under the burden of its colossal debt. When this experience occurs repeatedly, one's mind ineveitably turns to what may have caused such serial catastrophies.
The 'solidarity' you speak of SF, is in truth nothing more than a truncheon to malign effective management and divert them from the task of appropriate response in a rapidly changing market place. Frankly speaking, I would much rather be working for a strong, responsive, financially viable airline and put up with the minor irritations that come along with it, than be powdered, puffed and pampered by a company haemorrhaging cash. Profitability is the only sure guarantee of tenure in this or any business. I know this through bitter first hand experience, SF, and I can assure you that 'solidarity' was in every case either a critical symptom or direct cause of death.
I think you're spot on, though, when you suggest there are too many pilots being trained. FTO's are profit driven organisations like any other, but the irony is that in an unregulated, non-unionised workforce, companies like Ryanair can flourish, creating opportunities for hundreds of enthusiatic young pilots who otherwise would be condemned, if they're lucky, to GA or the minor league for much if not all their working lives.