'Will work for free'
Thought some of you might be interested in some musings of mine posted on another forum in regards to this topic:
I've been flying for over 36 years and right now is just about as bad as I've ever seen it for pilot employment worldwide.
One of my pilot friends says that we are our own worst enemies when it comes to pay and working conditions. Pilots who offer their services for free are just at the extreme end of the continuum. The other extreme is pilots lucky enough to be employed at long-standing airlines with strong trade unions and mature contracts. Somewhere in between is the majority of professional pilots, i.e. the rest of us.
As long as professional flying remains a "glory" profession, there will always be a surplus of pilots and many anxious newcomers that are desperate to start their career. This means that employers will continue to have the upper hand in the negotiation of wages and working conditions.
And one other thing......
Over the years I have seen a few disturbing trends such as the proliferation of training bonds and pilots who are paying for their own endorsements. I'm sure for the individual pilots this may have seemed an appropriate maneuver to get a "leg up on the competition" or to "jump start their careers" and for the individual concerned, this has probably proved an effective strategy.
Unfortunately, the cumulative result is that these strategies eventually become the norm to the detriment of all professional pilots and to the advantage of operators.
The same can be said about pilots that are willing to exceed duty days, overload aircraft, operate poorly maintained aircraft and operate without appropriate crew rest.
Many junior pilots today operate in an environment and working conditions more closely identified with indentured servitude.