The delusion is widespread
About a year or so ago a defining moment was reached at a certain regional airline. The ratio of pilots who were former cadets and those from the more traditional stream, had finally reached parity. The Union and the company were locked in a particularly vigourous industrial campaign, and the schedule was beginning to suffer.
Enter a senior manager whose responsibilities included the company cadet program. This bloke had it all worked out. He gleefully told a room full of graduates that the day had finally come where industrial disssent would be wiped away once and for all. In front of puzzled and then bemused faces he informed the group, that as of this graduation, there would no longer be a voting down of any EBA proposal put forward by the company. The logic being that as there were now more cadets in the pilot group than non cadets, the company can expect their boys and girls to tow the company line.
After nearly 12 months of being reminded they had no rights, were lucky to be here, have been “kissed on the d!ck”, and generally driven by fear, this particular course followed in exactly the same steps as their predecessors and those who came after. They immediately signed up to the Union!