Biscuit Chucker,
I find your highly emotional message very offensive.
Judging by your message, I assume that you have been with the company 5+ years. Have you ever considered that if cabin crew in the past had been more assertive when hammering out each successive EBA, your time at Eastern would not have been as difficult?
No one is saying "forget progression, we want more money now", but rather "pay us accordingly for the work we do and reward us for our loyalty and service with the right to progress to mainline".
Do you really think that Eastern management would be stupid enough to discard progression? If they did they wouldn't be able to hold on to cabin crew longer than a few months at a time. There is no way they could afford the cost involved in recruiting and training new crew at the rate of staff turnover they would have.
It is precisely because people in the past have panicked at the thought of losing progression that the company has been able to keep working conditions and benefits at such a low level.