I understand the deal, what I'm saying is that over time this profession will be destroyed. The way to keep this job attractive will be to use unions to force companies to pay a decent salary, that's the only way to keep managers at bay. Any ceo of any company would pay zero money if they could. Ryanair is one of the major trend-setters in the industry and unionization seems pretty far off. Fair enough, if paying for your job is the only option then take it but once you're in business join a union and grow a pair. There will always be a reason to keep your head low and your tongue brown but for the long term your job will be destroyed. Aviation is cornered right now, customers aren't prepared to pay for tickets, the economy is shot and if it gets going again oil will go through the roof. Finally we have the green movement busting to make us all go away.
I think flying is here to stay, that part might not be a problem. The question is will the people driving the planes be cowed MPL cadets 75k i debt making less than a taxi driver, with no pension, no loss of license sleeping out of their cars at the airport.
I'm sure the guys who flew in the 60s are shaking their heads at this career today just as I'm sure I'll be shaking my head when I retire at the !!!! the new guys have to put up with. Most unions seem to exist for their own benefit and the members get the crumbs but it's at least a force to oppose management. I think the reason it hasn't happened in Ryanair so far is that people have generally been pretty pleased with the situation. Now it's no more Mr nice guy from the company and they're about to start clamping down on the workers. Maybe if it becomes bad enough the union will start becoming an option as jumping ship for another company is hard in these times. I'm sure O'Leary knows this though so he probably pushes people just hard to keep the unions out of the picture and from what I can tell he can push pretty hard.