Originally Posted by
CaptCloudbuster
Seems like the appropriate question is why should we keep paying Union fees to an Organisation that proposes nothing?
What are unions actually able to do? Outside protected industrial action there is virtually ZERO scope to have any meaningful leverage by virtue of Federal Industrial Relations law. Unions and union official are personally liable for damages to any company and
third parties for non-protected action. Are members asking their representatives to take actions that virtually guarantee personal & family bankruptcy?
The only avenue to effect change and leverage is during an EBA bargaining period. Use this time
extremely wisely. Keeping an EBA as short in duration as possible will extend your leverage.
Yes, we woke up to find ourselves living in a fascist state with wage price controls. There is no pilot market in Australia
by order of the State at the demands of business, backed ultimately with the full force of violence and incarceration.
However, the problem with price controls is they usually result in a shortage of the suppressed good or item as no producer will willingly
voluntarily undertake production at below the risk/reward cost for any length of time. Stockpiles are diminished, this masks the reality, and once they are exhausted they are not replenished. This equates to observed reality for pilots.
If it was such a "glamours" job that rewarded the financial & personal risks there would be a continuous queue of ATPL holders who have risked a deposit on a Sydney or Melbourne house just to get to the starting line. Until airlines start to genuinely bare financial risk for training to CPL level or pay substantially more for the the bottom rung of the Commercial ladder (instructing is one the key positions, because without them NOTHING can change). But of course paying instructors more will simply increase the cost of gaining a licence, thus make it less affordable, and even risker. Sucks to be them.
Next up will be the demands for Commonwealth Scholarships & subsidies for civilian training... and they will get it too.