There seems to be a distinct lack of appreciation of the situation under which ASL was formed amongst many of the correspondents in this forum.
The formation of ASL was solely at the expense of the existing pilots on the, then, integrated seniority list. There was no difference between the freighter and the pax fleets. If you flew the Classic then you flew pax and Freighters without any discimination.
Cathay decided to expand the freighter side after AHK proved how profitable freight was ex HKG and CX had to purchase the company to stop the competition.
As a result of the splitting-off and downgrading of the freighter jobs, senior F/Os had to wait considerably longer for their command courses because the Command slots had effectively been taken away and formed into a separate company - ASL. The jobs were already there - they were not created by the formation of ASL.
If ASL had not been formed then ALL the commands in the freighter companies (as well as all the bases)would still be in mainline seniority.
I bear no malice against those individuals who decided to come to CXF/ASL and take an offered position. A job is a job. I feel pretty sure that all of them were aware of the industrial situation at the time. The only thing that bothers me is the attempt (after so few years) to bypass their fellow pilots to advance their own position. It was made perfectly clear to you all at the time by the company that you would only ever fly boxes.
The possibility of flying PAX when you have the seniority is a major concession by the pilots of "mainline" but this doesn't seem to be enough.
Whatever you do, remember that the company loves a divided workforce. We are divided by CoS and by seniority lists at the moment. The AOA managed to get you a big win with the rostering practices (ie you now have some AND they are the same as pax/mainline).
Time to be grateful and not to rock the boat, one would think. "If we keep quiet, we may get some more wins on the coat tails of the mainline guys. We certainly don't want to p**s them off."
Compo