I was expecting them to ask for deeper cuts, but not so soon after signing the AFFA... guess the patients really are running the asylum. The agreement was signed for 3 rosters extendable to 9 and the inks barely dried. The amount of time wasted to basically start the process all over again....
Anyway, Foran wants to slash costs (wages)
now, during his “survive” phase through to the end of August. Pilot notice period for redundancy is 3 months meaning it wouldn’t have any effect until September... probably October after we go through the motions again. There would also be no F20’s if they made another cut significant enough to have any tangible effect on costs.
Take note of the table in the AFFA agreement. We signed for 14% but it goes to 50%. 777 will soon be grounded until at least the end of the year. I expect we’ll be faced with Fleet/Rank proposals for varying amounts of Flexi or LWOP.
Should we refuse, the CEA and AFFA still apply. Foran might chop the bottom again, but I don’t see he would crew the Bus if he did. Word is, with the Tasman bubble looking likely, the Airbus fleet will be at its 70% target by the end of the year and they simply can’t train 180 FO’s in the next 6 months.
I’d say things are about to get ugly. The most Senior fleet is grounded, the most Junior will be doing to bulk of the work. We all know how redundancies work, but how many 777 Pilots will voluntarily sign up for 50% or LWOP? Would Carrie?
