The naivet being shown on this thread is astonishing. For whatever reason, inexperience or stupidity, the suggestions being expressed here about getting recognition by the TGWU or being represented jointly with cabin crew are a sure sign that you are all going to be shafted for a long time to come and deservedly so with these attitudes.
Show me one single UK airline where anyone other than BALPA have managed to get decent representation. Also, show me any single UK airline where pilots AND cabin crew are represented jointly and everyone is happy. I'm sure that you'll come up with a veritable list of success stories... NOT!
The only way you pilots are going to get any leverage over your pay and conditions is if you have a substantial majority of members in the only union that has successfully represented pilots and that's BALPA. Only the companies that have a high BALPA membership, over 70%, have any clout in their negotiations. The misguided innocence of some on here who fail to realise, as has been mentioned, that BALPA are just a tool and it is how you use that tool through your elected Company Council that will determine how well you get on with your negotiations.
Also, to offer the management some sort of representative employee council made up of both pilots and cabin crew is a non starter. How on earth you can get any leverage when the majority of your members will have nowhere near the skills, responsibilities or salary levels that you have or aspire to. Management at Jet2 must be in agony over the pain in their sides from laughing so much.
Talk about prime candidates for divide and conquer. No serious airline experienced union, if any. Suggestions that you be jointly represented with cabin crew who have nowhere near the same responsibilities, levels of training or salary requirements. You are separate in terms of status in the company, although they'd just love you to fall into the trap of associating yourselves as easily trained cabin crew instead of middle management level professionals.
Watch this space as Jet2 pilots dig themselves into a hole through inexperience and naivety. Revisit this thread in a year or so and see exactly the same problems they are having now repeat themselves. Anyone remember a few years ago when there were moves amongst the Ryanair pilots to unionise? They failed to sort themselves out because of exactly the same reasons being bandied about in this thread and look where they are today. Shafted and trying desperately to extricate themselves from the mess they're in with their own terms and conditions.
If you want to give yourselves any chance of proper representation then it has to be a solid backing for BALPA and don't fall into the trap of being jointly represented with the cabin crew or any other workers. No disrespect to them but they have their own unions with the necessary skills to back them up if they manage to organise themselves. Anything else is a wasted effort.