I do not work for FR. I have never worked for FR nor will I ever work for FR. I only comment from the experience of 46 years of professional flying. During this time, I have had experience of just about every form of representation ranging from BALPA to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. I also spent 7 years running a PLC.
I have to comment on the following:
"FR crews on Brookfield contracts are going to be left out in the cold on BALPA negotiations".
Now, that would be a terrible position to be in. What BALPA negotiations do you really fondly imagine are going to take place? Even if any negotiations with MOL actually take place and some little battle is won, are you telling me that the BRK guys will not also benefit by default? So why should they bother?
If I were flying for FR right now then I would much rather be a BRK employee than a Ryanair employee. Ryanair employees have so much more to lose. If this episode really gets to become an ar*ehole kicking contest then the BRK pilots don't have much to lose. They already own their type ratings and can walk tomorrow or else stay if the offer is good enough. They are free agents and are in control of their own future.
What do you imagine they lack in the big scheme of things? I know quite a few BRK employees who are quite capable of looking after themselves. After all, it only costs around £125 per year to get legal benefits insurance and it does not take a genius to set up his own pension scheme. (I, for example, am retired and one of my pensions comes from money saved whilst I was a contractor working in the US of A). It really is not rocket science to look after your own affairs.
I have witnessed the carnage created by pilots (and engineers) who thought they knew better than "the management". Eastern Airlines (Miami version) was a classic example.
Let us look at a very bleak scenario; MOL and BALPA just do not get on together. MOL decides to re-register Ryanair as Ryanair (Lithuania) Ltd. You can reapply for your jobs on Monday morning.
What the hell are you going to do? Perhaps you could persuade BALPA, IALPA et al to call a strike? How well do you think that will go? Hopefully the BALPA and IALPA members might support the action but that's about it.
The BRK pilots are not employed by FR and therefore cannot go on strike. So, at least 50% of the flights will operate as normal from UK and Ireland and the effect on overseas bases is likely to be minimal.
On Tuesday your jobs will be advertised in Flight International etc and after a few months you will be history, fighting a rearguard action in the courts that BALPA can't support for completely practical reasons (as per the Danair disgrace).
If you do not think that such a thing can happen, consider what happened to all of the FAA Air Traffic Controllers when Ronald Regan lost patience and fired the lot of them. Did flying in the US of A stop? Of course it didn't.
One of the saddest things that I have ever witnessed was seeing a bunch of ex-Continental pilots outside the terminal at Denver in full uniform with placards parading up and down trying to persuade the punters not to fly with "the bunch of scabs" that had queued up to replace them. I asked them how long they had being doing this. The answer was an astonishing "three years". Can any of you out there imagine such a scenario? Do you think the public gave a !!!!!? All they were interested in was the ticket price.
I suspect that the fire-breathing dragons among you have never ever seen a picket line and have never been involved in serious confrontation.
I also suspect that a large number of negative posters out there are like me in that they do not work for FR and are very unlikely ever to work for FR.
Unlike me, they really have no idea of what they are getting into and to expect some trade union to walk into Ryanair and solve all their problems overnight simply means that their judgement should seriously be questioned.
Personally, I am astonished that BALPA are even considering taking an interest in FR in the current climate. In the past, they have always stayed clear of any airline where there is the slightest chance of serious litigation. Even if he lost the war, MOL could write off all of BALPAs funds in a prolonged battle and it would be interesting to see whether the BA members of BALPA thought that defending FR was a sound investment since they see the likes of FR as being their very own harbinger of gloom.
God bless all of you.
Last edited by JW411; 29th June 2009 at 16:26.