A couple of points: firstly at the 2004 pay talks, much time was spent working out alternatives to the Loyalty Bonus, which the company has stated openly it wants to get rid of. While it may not cost the company a great deal now, there is a whole wedge of pilots soon to complete 5 years of service, and a smaller amount not far off ten. The reason given was that it goes against the company ethos, i.e. If the company only makes £1 profit, we get our bonus. The company wanted to make it a function of profit, and it was during this time the management admitted it was trying to cut costs so we knew that whatever formula for profitsharing we agreed, it was going to mean less money eventually and that was why no changes to the current system were ever introduced. It needed to be visible, because nobody trusts the management, and based on factors we could control. Sounds pretty much like the deal they are trying to put on the table now, and the current CC are rejecting them for exactly the same reason. Everything they do is about cost cutting, but have let 280 pilots in three years slip through their fingers, one has to wonder where all this is going.
One has also to remember the great Australian pilots dispute of 1989 as there are lessons to be learnt here as well. The pilots of 4 Domestic Airlines helped the management stem pay rises for many years during the tough 1980's because they said they could not afford it; the AFAP agreed to help but with the proviso that when things got better, their wages would catch up to where they were. That was a promise. When, in 1989, the pilots wanted to see their money, this had gone on for so long that the claim was for 30% to which the airline management then totally reneged on their promise despite the goodwill of the pilots. The rest is history but the lesson, as Virgin pilots learnt recently, is that when they say"They cannot afford it," means they do not want to afford it and if the pilots let the management of easyJet off the hook right now when a big pay rise is owed, then their chance to restore our wages will be gone forever.