They often live in conditions that most airline pilots would gag at.
Which hotels are you talking about? When I often had a beer with a visiting Herc crew, I saw QF crews using the same hotel. This is going back a decade so times may have changed but every Herc crew I knew that visited an Oz capital city didn't stay in the mess on base, they stayed in a Hotel in town. Like I said maybe times have changed. I'll not mention the tax free dollars and allowances on certain deployments that compensate for the 'risk' or hard lying. Remember QF flew into Dadsbag as well. On the other hand Caribou crews spend quite some time in tents in the field, comes with Army support, I don't think P-A-F drives a DHC4/CC08.
I won't denigrate military pilots in any way. I have tremendous respect for most I've met and the job they do. Some do it for free top quality training and to get experience up for QF and CX etc. Some for the altruistic reason of serving their country, "defending Autralia's interests" etc. Some for both-whatever floats their boat. But, they are not seriously qualified to comment from an experience perspective on Industrial Relations against an
adversarial employer and strike action as a last resort.
Back to the topic:
Industrial relations and NJS Pilots