Everyone on this thread has made some excellent points. I have mentioned some of these points on Regional safety thread. The FAA has been in bed with the airline management way TOO LONG. How can you expect pilots to be well rested and fresh if they have overnights that are less than 10 hours? By the time all passengers are off the plane and you have written up the airplane for MX, walk the long terminal to the Hotel Van shuttle pickup point, wait 30 to 45 minutes for the van to arrive, 15 to 35 minute van ride to the Hotel because the management is too cheap to give you hotels that are nicer and much closer to the airport, after ALL THIS, you are lucky if you get 5 to 6 hour sleep. That is if you are the type who can fall asleep right away.

And this problem is compounded on your first day if you commute in that morning or on your last day of the 4 or 5 day trip when 2 or 3 of your days had less than 10 hour overlays.

The concensus of the majority of pilots on this thread is that the following changes are needed and LONG overdue.

One, the pilot pay needs to be increased for sure.
Two, someone said the Airline should provide for a hotel room for the night before a trip especially if that trip has a report time of 8 am or earlier like 6am.
Three, any time pilot is on duty longer than 12 hours in one day he should be paid overtime.
Four, there should be no overnights less than 10 hours. Better yet 12 hours as DiverDriver suggested.
Five, positive space ride on flights to and from work.
Six, this one is directly related to the first point regarding the need to increase pilot pay, all pilots flying under the same banner, ie., DAL flights or UAL flights should be done by pilots under the same seniority list. Take a look at Air Canada, Lufthansa, British Airways. All their pilots whether they fly CRJ900 or B777 are under the same seniority list.
Seven, junior pilots interest needs better representation by the Union. A good example is at XJ, the union reps turned down the offer, get this, from the MANAGEMENT, of all people, to actually increase pay for XJ first year FOs and guess what? the Union reps turned the XJ management down because they said it will not benefit all pilots. These are same guys who actually screwed over the senior guys at XJ when they negotiated their Flowthru program that will benefit their group the most (10 to 15 year longevity at XJ).

Think these are impossible to achieve, think again. Emirates provides limo rides to and from the airport for their pilots in addition to providing free housing to all their pilots.