Secret squirrel in his last paragraph makes some sense. The reason that flight crew have their ivory tower is that as a body they have a very strong identity. Most companies think twice about taking their flight crews on over any issue. Why do you think there has been very little news on the pain flight crews are taking while engineers are loosing overtime, allowances, pay and even jobs. Pay is set by market forces but status is decided by the strength of your bargaining position. If it were different then certifiers would have First Officer status, at least. This is not such a ridiculous suggestion when you consider the contribution a certifier makes to an airlines operation. The reason we don't is that our representative body is not strong or cohesive enough to bring pressure. We even have cabin crew and in flight beauticians as members now. Secret squirrel has a point when he sayes we need to take this issue in hand as a body, and force our status higher. Your thoughts please.