Roaring 40's
Actually, as someone who spent well over 12 years flying in Europe, I am more than qualified to comment on these things.
You are joking aren't you about EU and ME airline not going to court to negotiate
I find this hard to believe since only 3ish years ago I spent a whole week in the high court in London taking part in proceedings between the union I was a member of and the legacy carrier I was flying with. Off the top of my head I can think of 2 charter carriers who went to court over holiday pay / strike injunctions etc. As for the ME, those airlines don't have management who negotiate about anything, go and have a read of the ME forum my friend and you will find many examples of ME carriers management just changing contracts at their whim and telling people to get stuffed if they don't like it.
If I am right in what your post says, you are actually accusing me of bringing about the reduction in terms and conditions in New Zealand aviation by trying to improve and protect the terms and conditions that I am now earning / enjoying
So by me not agreeing to big cuts I am forcing management to undercut me.
That is great if you are happy in the EU doing your job, I still find it very hard to believe that you are indeed earning in the 3 - 400,000 nzd range. 150,000 pounds was a very reasonable income for a bog standard longhaul Captain (pay point 24) at my employer which is currently around $300,000 per annum in nzd.
I quite agree that living costs in NZ and Australia are way higher than they were when I left to go an make my money overseas. I decided though that London was not where I wanted to raise my family so the 'lifestyle' in NZ won over the excellent career I had, because despite being more expensive I can afford a far better lifestyle in NZ than I could in London. If you are so happy in the EU then great. If you are earning the equivalent of 3-400000 nzd then living in the EU then I would stay there as that is an outstanding wage.
It was actually my time overseas that opened my eyes to the Australasian aviation market and the fact that the days of senior airline Captains earning $500,000 per year is unrealistic. Something the rest of the world seems to have cottoned on to. I have actually over the years done my part in protecting terms and conditions, I have never been bonded for any of my airline jobs, never paid for any training, always been an active member of the union, I have turned down jobs as I did not want to pay for interviews etc. And was only stopped in partaking in strike action to protect my terms and conditions by a high court decision stopping me from doing so.
My comments above were aimed at those who have contacted me in the past via pprune to tell me that they are earning outrageous amounts of money and consider $200,000 nzd to be an insult for a professional pilot. 9/10 of those who say this are generally working in far flung odd parts of the world that I would not take my family too if you paid me $1,000,000 per year. They are happy their and that is there choice, I am just saying that those payrates they talk of are not generally available in parts of the world where most would like to live. As I say if you are managing to earn 50% more than anyone I know in the EU earns then you are onto a good thing and should stay there.