"a4000 why should existing employees on permanent contracts take the hit when it is the guys on flexi contracts who accepted them?"
For reasons such as that mentioned by I like tea. If you have any significant time left in this industry then this downward trend in conditions will come to you too. Surely its better to fight sooner rather than later, before things get any worse.
Unfortunately the flexis dont have any other options coming out of training. Fair enough pretty big questions can be asked about anyone that decided to invest 100k in training during the worst recession of modern times, but thats another story....