I've tried this simple question to various pilot colleagues who work for various airlines in the early stages of their careers.
" can you see yourself staying in ths company/job/lifestyle for the next 25years?"
Alll the legacy/major older airline guys said yes; all the LoCo's said no.
The latter is not seen as a career, the former is. That is what has to change, but sadly the management have their head in the sand and are in denial over such a matter. Until there is that change there will always be this feeling of despondance lower down the food chain. Considering the profits and productivity of the LoCo's they should not be lower down the food chain. When it comes to T's & C's, and that includes employer/employee relationship my friends are agast at what we have to absorb. Many things would be unthinkable in their world. And it's not only airlines. I have friends who are middle managers in conventional ground job,s on half my income, and they are appalled at the behaviour of managements in all the 7 airlines I've worked for. It would have been unthinkable to them; and that has been within airlines in 4 different countries/c ultures. The national cultures would have made it unacceptable to treat normal middle/senior managers (or even the plain indians) with the contempt they treated us pilots and cabin crew. The airline managers themselves would never have accepted such treatment.
There in lies the rub. Somewhere there is an airline management training college where these values are being taught; because it is the same all over. Let's find and nuke that college.