Be careful what you wish for. I'm all for taking care of our own, but the problem with this school of thought is that when the staffing crisis hits our level the company will start handing out massive signing bonuses to future employees who are not yet on property, and the first year FOs become the highest paid FOs. It's not fair to those of us who have been grinding it out day to day. This is exactly what we are seeing at the regionals today...companies are pumping massive amounts of $$$ bonuses into new hires to the point that first year FOs are on par with junior CAs, all while the pilots currently on property don't see one damn cent. I've experienced this once before in my career and I am not interested in reliving it.

I realize that the probationary year sucks here but we all lived thru it and so will everyone else as they start climbing the totem pole. If there was a way to lock in year 1 gains with the ability to block future sign on bonuses offered by the company to new hires (or institute a "me too" signing bonus clause for all pilots), then I would be all down for it.