ear2ground - as a customer's first point of contact, I happen to think that ground staff are actually very important people. The way that the check in staff and CSAs treat the pax will be their initial - and save some radical problems or outstanding service on board - will form the pax's overall impression of the airline. The buck starts with you guys!
Secret Squirrel - wrong. I don't like anyone - whether they be pilots, engineers, ground staff or baggage handlers - thinking that they are more important than the rest of the team; and demanding to play by their own rules.
As I have said several times on this and the BA thread there's a world of difference between different pay scales (and yes, pilots will always be paid more than engineers or cabin crew) and what we're discussing here which is substantially higher pay demands than those for the rest of the team.
Understand where I'm coming from now?
Whats_it_doing_now 300+ applications and counting, thank you for asking.
Perhaps you chaps should do what I did and get yourself a copy of
Nuts!, the story of Herb Kelleher and Southwest Airlines. Another good one is Gordon Bethune's autobiography.
Now,
that's how you run an airline!