You're right, it's not good for the profession at all and nobody likes it one bit, apart from the company management. The problem is that when the guys involved signed up to the course they did so in good faith and before the economy fell through the floor, when recruitment was in full swing. It was a good investment at the time. You can't blame them for taking what's on offer right now, there is no other option.
The airline have not attempted to hide the fact that they wish to significantly reduce crew costs, in part through the use of contractors. As I see it, the arrangement with CTC will probably eventually end up more or less mirroring the Ryanair/Brookfield arrangement. Yes, it is effectively 'Ryanairisation', and it's spreading like a cancer. You can bet your bottom dollar that anyone taking redundancy from EMA or any of the other downsizing bases won't be replaced by permanent crew.
What I'm more interested in is what BALPA are doing about it - the obvious answer at the moment is 'nothing very quickly'. FlexiCrew F/Os do not have BALPA representation in either easyJet or CTC. BALPA have claimed they are putting together a strategy and policy on this subject, but that was months ago and nothing has been heard since. I know these things take time, but surely this has to be a priority now. With no representation or support, the guys involved have nowhere to turn, no other jobs within sight and have to take what's offered.
I hope that the easyJet CC/BALPA HQ are taking a robust, and well supported, stance on this.
They weren't massively interested last year when the first cadets were dropped without being given the contracts they had been told they would be given, and even now they seem extremely slow to catch up. What they can do exactly, I don't know, but then I'm not an employment law expert and doing nothing isn't really an option.