It is silly to compare an AWA in some other job to what the JPC negotiated for their EBA.
The JPC negotiated the worst deal possible. They undercut every other airline wage by a good amount in a time when there was expansion in airlines. To say the JPC did a bad deal is like saying Stalin was just being a naughty boy.
The fact is that wages are increasing in all the other airlines. There is a pilot shortage. It is a great position to be in when negotiating a new wage deal.
The thing is who would be better at negotiating? One untrained individual, or a properly organised association.
Now because the JPC is so incredibly bad at representing their pilots, and because of the labour shortage AWAs are doing well in some areas it may well be that in this one case an individual could do better on an AWA than with a JPC negotiated EBA.
However you need to look to the long term. What will happen when there is a downturn, what will happen if there is a terrorist attack and tourism dies to a trickle? It would cause an oversupply of pilots for a year or so. It is then that the protection of a union and an EBA will be vital.
So if Jetstar ever gets some decent pilot representation, you would have to think that for a volatile industry like ours the long term stability of union negotiated EBAs has to have some merit.
The problem isn't that you may do better with an AWA, your real problem is that the JPC is just a crap pilot representative body.