Crack-up Mudflat! Good posts.
C.T.W.D. Unfortunately you are dead right. Trying to get some pilot groups to pull in the same direction is akin to holding the Red sea back with a broom. The very fact however that the profession has become a joke will eventually see the changes that are well overdue. Amongst many young Aussies the "profession" is about as popular as a pork chop at a Jewish wedding! That situation will one day see the restoration of T&C's to what they should be, but I'm afraid it will be after lots of pain for the company, and sadly those regional centres that depend on these essential services.
A good management team, a forward thinking management team, would have correctly identified these crewing issues from the outset. They would have understood that irrespective of the fortunes of Virgin, Jetstar, Qantas et'al, the decimation of G/A and the abandonment of the "profession" by an entire generation of young Australians, will ensure that this crewing crisis will be with us well into the future!
Predictably I'm afraid, the clowns that run the show see themselves as victims of the crewing shortage, rather than the contributors to it! They have tried everything short of recruiting Santa Clause in an effort to fill cockpits. Everything except what will ultimately be the only solution; A redefining of what the profession of Pilot is really worth.
It will come eventually, but only after a protracted period of Bullsh!t. In the meantime boys and girls, if you want the bullsh!t period to be months rather than years, say no to extensions, and no to working your RDO's.