Timbits
As long as I get ****ed by my significant other, good times. By you, not so much. And my post wasn't directed at you accepting your contract. In fact, none of the CEP arguments are about targeting the expat contracts at all. That remark is insidiously being raised by the DFO himself....get with the program. There's no need to fly off the handle especially when the premise of your handle is incorrect perception of what I was trying to put forward, nobody is trying to make you feel guilty for signing up to anything. And there are points that you made in your less expletively suffixed post that I agree with, particularly that part about "Now, once we have made those choices, that is not to say that we don't want to protect what we have, and strive for better, but we have to do so wisely, and within reason." So that to me is an acceptance that the CEPs have a right to fight for better conditions, but understandably you are concerned about the potential consequences to yourself and as I've said before, if it's truly a concern, raise it with the AOA, because in all honestly the last thing the CEPs want to do is piss you off to the point where you actually take the company's stance.
"Would I love to have been making A scale salaries, complete with travel funds etc all these years??? Of course I would, but I do not begrudge the guy next to me who has, because that was what was on offer for him."
CEPs are not begrudging anyone because of what people signed up for in the past...where does that come from?
69er
It's disconcerting to hear that the direction of the CEP argument is being taken as an attack on the expat community. I can say with all honestly that the central tenet of the CEP strategy is not an attack on any of the other pilots, but you do raise a legitimate concern by definition of perception and so this consideration must be incorporated into the debate. As I've said before, it is not the intention of the CEPs (certainly not mine!), it would not only serve no purpose but be a two step backwards solution by increasing the already too apparent divide between CEPs and expat notions. Though I still cannot agree with you on the envy part, I still personally feel it is about bringing local T&Cs to a standard, but you and I have respectfully disagreed on this perception before, and there it shall remain till.
Not sure that the income tax argument really works. If you live where you live, you have to pay that tax, that being a geographical distinction. Actually my family get taxed by two different countries at the moment....but I'm not asking for an increase in pay to cover those costs because I'm back here in HKG.
Your suggestion about the A scale with allowance is interesting, but delicate. If CEPs are entitled to the A scale which is a basic payscale, then by the same token so should everyone else. That would be nice, but that would truly open up an already widening Pandora's box from the company's standpoint, and as such, would be flatly turned down as a possible alternative to the gap closing solution. Still open to ideas though, of course.