In my professional career things haven't changed much. I'm on my 7. year now and I have never seen or experienced the so called glory days. I've only read about it. T&C's incorporate national and international point system that sets a pilot's maximum working time for each day and each week. We're already at that limit. The only thing companies now can do to increase effectiveness is to keep those points building up in the air instead of on ground. There is nothing a pilot can do to influence this as this relates to route structures and crew slings. Since most operators today operate close to these limits the only other thing to increase effectiveness is to lower wages/pensions or to remove unproductive assets. Some of these unproductive assets are needed according to international law NPH's.
What SAS has been doing lately is to resign completely with regard to cut back on the unproductive assets. Instead they have started a race with the unions to cut wages and pensions in order to become profitable. This is in my opinion a big mistake as operators elsewhere can offer better T&C's. What they will end up with is pilots leaving the company in search of better jobs. Then what ? Who's gonna fly the airplanes ? Who's gonna make sure the income is higher than the cost ? An airline is dependent upon their pilots. This fact can never be changed, and for this reason the managements recent move ( Which is in fact only the starting point in lowering the T&C's) disasterous for the company as a whole.
I'm not going to participate in that race, I'm leaving now because I cannot continue to perform my duties in a safe manner when all I think about is whether or not I have a job tomorrow. I can't even sleep properly at nights. Call me weak, call me whining, call me overpaid, but the fact remains that under the current conditions safety is impaired, and I'm not going to face those consequences if the **** hits the fan!