Spandex,
You can't say those examples have equal responsibility. The rot should've been stopped by the workforce the very moment it began. That's where the true responsibility lies.
You seem to be happy to ignore the fact that people coming out of training, having paid for their initial training as well, need to have an income. Uncertain, limited or few hours are still hours. Like I said before, people do what they need to do in order to survive. Anything is better than sitting at home, with no income at all, on basis of principle.
If anything is cynical, it's blaming the current youngest generation of pilots for problems the older generation could've prevented in the first place. But because they didn't, by now those practices have spread wide and far. If you ask me, should Ryanair go bankrupt tomorrow, any number of other airlines would try exactly the same tactics.
Now if the Irish government would grow some f'ing balls and actually force union recognition onto Ryanair, along with a serious investigation into the social dumping that is Brookfield... Things might actually change a bit.
As for the collective you talk about Spandex. Things have actually been tried. About 5 years ago there was the famous "uprising" of the Dublin pilots, who at the time were unhappy with their T&C's. If I remember correctly they actually took Ryanair to court. The result was zero. Except for the fact that nearly none of the FO's involved made it to captain, and of the captains involved practically all have disappeared from the company.
The best an individual can do is leave. Something which I plan to do myself if I get a better deal somewhere. Will I be bitter towards the guy who takes my place? No. because I know what position he is in and what he needs to endure. So I won't blame him for keeping the Ryanair machine going. Because he, like me and all my friend, does what he needs to do.
With due respect Spandex, as I believe you're certainly worthy of that even based on your seniority in the industry alone, I don't think you'll ever fully get what I'm saying. Because you've never been in the situation many youngsters find themselves in today. I'm not sure you're able to fully relate.
I'm not attacking you personally with that by the way.