"As far as I'm aware it's not legal for UK crew to refuse to operate in support of French strike action. I doubt everyone is happily queueing up and volunteering to operate these flights." ---->>> Wow we're lucky, the law is there for an excuse for not facing our responsibility !! That was close...
A4, what I hope would happen is to see BALPA and the French union acting together towards better, steady and equal T&Cs across all countries EZ operate in. A 350 millions profit airline putting their pilots to such poor standards of pay and working conditions is a terrible shame. And more terrible is the fact pilots and unions don't even have any response !!!!! T&Cs at EZ are not even management's fault. That's the unions and the pilots' fault as they simply bend over. It would take the slightest common action from Balpa+the german+the French to lead EZ to better demeanors.
Why in hell would EZ's management act any differently since there is no response from the unions ? Personally, I would take the very same path as EZ's management :
- make pilots pay for the choice of aircraft type (i.e. make them pay for their type rating),
- keep juniors in a state of high dependance and no other option than to keep their mouths shut,
- always hire new recruits at a lower price than the previous so as to be able to put more pressure on the older guys for lower T&Cs.
And all that with no strike action, not even the least moaning. Our population has turned into cattle. No wonder they cannot even decide to take extra fuel for CBs at destination
