Originally Posted by
pig dog
What a wonderful opportunity to show the nation how generous the pilot body is and how distasteful their management are for very little cost.
1) Choose a suitable (tax deductible) charity to donate to (drought relief / Red Cross / Smith Family / Salvation Army / Gay Pride etc.).
2) Let every media outlet in the country know that the entire pilot body wishes to donate their full bonuses to a worthy charity provided the pay freeze condition is removed.
3) Watch AJ scurrying and changing position re pay freeze, now explaining he would not stop a donation circa $6 million going to said charity and would pay the bonus he has already promised and made provision for.
4) July 1 2019 submit tax return including $2000 donation to charity. Receive additional $900 in your tax return.
For the majority of the pilot population, the difference between receiving the bonus paid or donating it all and claiming the deduction would be around $200. The value of the marketing coup and the exposure to the public of this outrageous “bonus” would be worth considerably more.
That is
not the narrative AJ will feed to the media and he has the media eating out of his hand (remember, Ben Sandilands was about the only journo with the guts to criticise QF and he was ostracised by the company for it). If we get all aggressive about this, he will feed to the media that pilots are using charity donation as a bargaining chip to avoid productivity increases in their EBA and “using the farmers/Smith Family/Salvos to hold the company to ransom when they already earn the money to make that donation without conditions attached”. The media and the incumbent government will lap that up.
This management group is ruthless and truth or perspective
does not matter to them. The problem is that we pilots can often be more hot-headed than calm and diligent about it. I have BIG reservations about directly linking a potential charity donation to the bonus and therefore EBA negotiations.