For me personally, I never had an end date to stop payment, as it felt lucky that I was still in a position to help when it could so easily have been me and it was a moral obligation, the right thing to do, you know - old fashioned principles - the sort us old farts go on about from time to time.
Yes, you are lucky. Consider those who cannot spare the extra income. I'm not saying whether it was the right thing to do to abandon your union obligations when times are tough. But if you had to choose between the union vs housing your family or schooling your kids, which would you choose? Yes, money can be THAT TIGHT without a housing or education allowance, which amounts to more than a doubling of income.
I was not around during the 49ers dispute. But some of us do hold "old fashioned principles" when a colleague falls upon hard times. It was an individual choice and we asked for nothing back in return.
it takes a lateral thinking person to see the bigger picture and ascertain that the gain may not be immediate or substantial in nature, and sometimes the gain may only be for the group as a whole and not the individual.
I agree that collective bargaining is the only defense against the adversarial management. As "Mr Wizard" had rightly pointed out, we are but blue collar workers who are interchangeably replaceable, and therefore our negotiating powers as individuals are weak. However, we are also concerned whether we can trust the AOA either. Are we really considered as part of the "group" you mentioned? It is very difficult to believe, when the prevailing attitudes, shown all too well by these forums, is that LEPs are lowly peasants who are lucky to be in this job. Tolerated, but will always be - "just a local".
The current policy, where subs are based on salary exclusive of allowances, and LEPs (and based pilots) effectively pay higher contributions as a percentage of total income, simply illustrates the fact that the AOA chooses to ignore the issue entirely.
"The issue of greatest concern to you is unimportant to us, as you are in the minority. However please come join and pay us your dues anyway, and we will fight together for marginal improvements while ignoring the 50% pay disparity."