411a
I hear what you're saying, but a few things have changed for the better over the last 12-18 months. First and foremost there is a whole bunch of guys here (F/O's) who are not the slightest bit concerned about getting the bullet. There are plenty of jobs to go to and some are on furlough from the US. I flew with an F/O the other day who is leaving after 3 years to go and fly corporate in the states.
Secondly, the UAE of today bears little resemblance to Saudi of years ago. They may still have the same attitude, but they have had to outwardly adjust it in order to appear like a 1st world country (well at least not the 3rd world country it really is) in order to gain entrance to the WTO et al. Remember the Dubai Ports fiasco. That is how the world really sees this place, and they need to be seen to be doing the right thing even if they dont believe it.
Thirdly, more than one pilot has sued the company for unfair dismissal in the UK, and won handsomely. Sure they had already lost their jobs and had little more to lose, except the legal fees. But as i said, there are many here who dont care about losing their jobs. Any pilot with a pulse can walk into a widebody job somewhere at the moment.
So while the company might like to sack them/fail them on their command, the UK courts would have something else to say about that too.
So i would say that if there is any substance to this rumour, and they take it to the UK, or some other labour friendly country, they might stand a reasonable chance of winning. On the other hand, they might lose their jobs.
Not everyone is happy to sit back and accept ME crap just because challenging it might cause some heartache.
Good luck to em. If it is true and they win then we will all benefit, therefore we should all support it.
But we know better dont we.
Pilots aren't in tha habit of supporting their colleagues in order to further the profession. They are more in the style of "F**k you, I'm all right jack"
V