And your solution to it is? Do you think there is a thing that pilots can do other than be unionised? And please do not say that pilots should refuse to join and 'that would show them'. The next pilots on the list would just say 'thank you very much' and taken an even worse deal. Unions are what protect easyJet (unlike Ryanair) and that is why we need to remain that way. The mere fact that we have so many pilots turning up at our door looking to join us means that in the supply and demand stakes we are already on a loser. Way more people want to work for us than we have jobs to give out. The sad truth is that if the price of a type rating doubled today there would still be countless young people turning up with their parents' money to join us. That is what drives down terms and conditions - simple economics.
Just out of interest, we have just had our annual pay offer for the UK contract - 2% (way above inflation) plus we have also been given £3k worth of shares and a 4.6% one-off payment for our performance bonus (FOs got more for some strange reason). Bearing in mind, all captains in the UK earn more than £100k a year, that seems good news to me. It is hardly a disaster, but listening to some of you on here it clearly would be. As I have said, if you could get a better job then I am sure you would not be wasting your time on here, but given that easyJet is clearly on your radars then it is not all bad - I am certainly managing to cope with the 'disappointments' of my pay this year. It is undoubtedly true that our senior managers and directors will be substantially better off and some will make millions. I am a simple soul, however, and am happy just to take the 'trickle-down' effect. Sure we are making our shareholders (which most pilots are) a pile of money, but we are also doing pretty well ourselves. Go to the public sector in the UK and ask them what sort of pay rise they got. I suspect if you went to any of the majors you would find they did not get that either. So talk of employees subsidising bottom lines is really not accurate. There is a route for every single pilot at easyJet to become a senior Training Captain - and whilst accepting the initial deal is not great, it is pretty good at the top end. There are worse fates to befall you than that.