"MTK, with respect, but getting hired at age 20, being given a multi engine rating by Air Canada, and then sitting sideways seeing the world while building pension time and enjoying benefits is NOT a hardship. It was winning the lottery.
Your absolutely right about one thing. When I got hired I felt I had won the lottery. After 8 yrs in general aviation, being hired in my late 20's, FULLY QUALIFIED, spending 11 years as a Second Officer watching someone else do the job I wanted to do, then 9 as a First Officer, I finally got promoted when I was 48. No you didn't read that wrong. TWENTY years with the company to make left seat. Admittedly if I had bid to the bottom and moved to YWG I could have had it about 6 yrs sooner.
I actually got to spend 2 1/2 yrs in my dream job as a wide body Captain, until some outdated arbitrary line in a pension document said I could no longer enjoy what I had worked my entire life to attain.
"loss of purchasing power approaching 50% of what my seat paid a decade ago"
For some reason you think this only applies to your generation. Every one on the property has paid dearly the last 10 years for which you have a succession of gutless MEC members
and everyone who voted YES to blame for it.
Yes, I know, you voted NO, like every one else I talked to.
My "rant" is also over.