stillalbatross
If you joined before the formation of ASL then it cost you time to command. If you joined after most ASL pilots were reintegrated(ie 1/1/00) into CX then time to command reduced slightly. That is because some of the freighter commands went to CX pilots as opposed to all freighter commands going to ASL pilots before 1/1/00.
Now lets look at the ASL pilots that joined CX 1/1/00.
The Captains remained as freighter captains on whatever base until their seniority allows them to become pax captains - I suspect that will be in the next year or so. So how do you assert they got massive payrises? I don't know if any are pax captains yet so they are still waiting for their massive payrises after almost 9 years remaining on their freighter pay. Their pay(ie CX freighter) was so poor that some even gave up being freighter captains to be HKG pax FOs, after their seniority had built up enough to be FOs - around 2003-2004.
The FOs - well they have been well and truly screwed by the reintegration. If they had remained in ASL they would all be Captains as 3/4 of the commands were promised to ASL FOs back in 1/1/00. Instead those FOs that transferred across had to do a further 3-4years as freighter FOs before finally having the seniority to come across to pax FO. Those guys are still waiting for their seniority to build up to get a command on the pax fleet.
Unlike other airlines, CX never separated pax and freighter flying completely. That is why since the late 90s you have had the most senior and expensive A scale CNs flying the freighter on many occasions. Management is either too myopic or have too much 'loss of face' to ever admit to getting the freighter equation wrong. Pax FOs are getting more senior and more expensive due to delayed upgrades - so whilst CX appears to win on the freighter costing they lose on the pax costing.
Politics wise...I wasn't involved with the reintegration of ASL in 1999 but I know many of the participants and I might respectfully assert they knew what they were doing. The aim was to reintegrate not separate! I can assure you the AOA did look at other airlines and talk to other unions. For the american style of unionism to work you need american pilots under american protection. Likewise for UK or Aussie unionism...just because other people had wins doing things their way doesn't naturally mean we did things the wrong way! Still you are entitled to your own opinion and I hope you are one of the 22 nominees so you can share it and be the silver bullet we need!
By the way, I have no idea how you got the numbers you got. Firstly, how do you come up with a 4 year delay to command? If you joined after 1/1/00 then your command is/was not delayed at all as the ex ASL guys are senior to you. If you joined before ASL was formed then you are already a CN and I can tell you my delay was not 4 years, probably closer to 2years.
For the sake of a numerical exercise I will assume your 4 years are correct. That means you missed on CN1-SCN2 pay for 4 years then remained 4 increments below for the remainder of your career in CX. Assuming you were due to be a CN today but will be delayed by 4 years from today, the NPV of all the future lost earnings, using your 10% discount rate, is close to $1.6million HKD.