By taking a job at KAL won't I be taking someone elses job? It just won't happen to be yours I realize that. I know this is a touchy issue. As I said in my last post the US does not even allow this kind of issue to be raised because of the emotion it causes.
KAL is different, because KAL local pilots are the only ones being disadvantaged by DECs. KAL local pilots should have known that DECs would be hired because KAL has done that for the last 25 years.
The current F.O.s at Emirates were lured here with promises of upgrades in 18 months. Some have now been here for over 2.5 years without an upgrade in sight. When these F.O.s were hired DECs had not been hired by Emirates for over 10 years, so it is very different. The rules were changed mid-stream and that has severely dis-advantaged those who chose to leave good jobs based on what now can be considered empty promises.
EK management have dropped the ball in regards to this issue and need to realize that a mass exodus is in the offing. They think that hiring DECs saves them money because bean counters don't calculate what it costs to train a new F.O. Nor do they calculate the lost efficiency from the ill will that it creates among those who stay. Hire 50 DECs, lose 100 F.O.s isn't a good bargain compared to upgrading those F.O.s and hiring new ones.
In the long run the better alternative is to upgrade the existing highly qualified F.O.s and scrap the DEC idea altogether. Unfortuantely EK management have backed themselves into a corner and will need to hire DECs just to man the expansion.
To answer your question though, DECs are generally not treated too bad. Only when they are clearly incompetent and unfit for the job do they get a lot of grief. EK have made the mistake of hiring some in that category, but I think the qualified ones like the job.
Typhoonpilot