Air carrier Captain reported of being fatigued by company schedule.

Narrative

I am writing this report because I am deeply concerned about fatigue and the crisis that is upon us. I never thought this would be an issue at (Company); but here we are. Decades ago I flew for a Regional Airline that operated under the assumption that FAA limits were normal operating procedure. They didn't recognize that FAA limits should be viewed as the boundary; not the normal way of operating. Unfortunately; decades later (Company) is doing the same thing that lousy Regional Airlines did. Most Pilots at this Regional could not wait to get out of there for this reason. The best way to describe FAR 117 to anyone that isn't a Pilot is to associate it to food. FAR 117 is the same as really really bad food. It's the kind of food you eat out of desperation; because it's better than starving; however; it's awful. Once in a while; sure I get it; I need to eat it. However; we are at a point where Crew Scheduling is handing out bad food on a regular basis. There is only so much bad food we are willing to eat before we seek out a better alternative; and that is called fatigue. Example; just this weekend I was scheduled to fly a 12 hour 55 minute duty day after a 12 hour overnight. When the Scheduler gave me this whopper (normal these days); I told him that many things had to go right for this day to go as planned; considering I only had 35 minutes of leeway before I became illegal. His response? It's legal; we will deal with it if it doesn't work out. Well; it failed miserably. We landed in ZZZ1; just prior to a thunderstorm and of course I became illegal to fly my last leg. Their solution? Deadhead on that flight; which the aircraft had diverted; so there was no telling how long it would be before that flight pushed. About 4 hours later; while waiting for this flight; they called again and said I was illegal to deadhead. Now they wanted me to go to the hotel for another 11 hour overnight after being on duty for 13 plus hours. I asked for a later deadhead the next day so I could recover from this beast of a day; and the response again was its legal; we don't have to do that. It took arguing with a Supervisor for them to understand why I wanted a longer overnight. I was fatigued and I knew that the next day I would probably be asked to fly instead of deadhead and 11 hours of rest wasn't going to cut it. They finally conceded and I got a longer overnight. This is the fourth time in the last two months where scheduling has tried to back me into a corner and I have called fatigue. There are Pilots out there who are just doing what Scheduling is asking them to do and there is no way it's a Safe operation. I hope whoever reads this; sounds the alarm over at Crew Scheduling. The Company claims we are calling fatigue and sick too much; yet if the Company doesn't change its Crew Scheduling process; the problem will only get worse. Summer is coming.