Ah yes, a long time ago...and the camels nose in the tent was the...."B" scale...you and your buddies should have seen the writing on the wall...at that time...now too late.
Now the "B" scale has trickled down to nearly everyone...with the result that your "difficulties" will not go away anytime soon.
Salaries for flight crew have been on a downtrend (except generally in the USA) for a long time now...CX is not the first and will not be the last by any means.
Recall when I left SQ in the early eighties, the local troops there wanted a "union"...and just look how far they have gotten...pi@@ing into a typhoon would have better results.
Be happy as a contract pilot, after all, things could be a lot worse.