When I was thinking about leaving the RAF I was looking around for a professional body that would help me with some recognition of my RAF record, so I joined SLAET. On demob I joined Bristow Helicopters but was told that any Union membership that I might have had would not be recognised by the Company, it did not cause me to reconsider my position.
During my time with Bristow the company went through a tremendous expansion during the 1970’s and 1980’s when a lot of new Pilots were taken on, many were members of BALPA who managed to start a strike. They tried to expand the strike on the airport (fire, air-traffic, baggage handling) but they were a bit heavy handed regarding other ranks (most Pilots were ex RAF). Engineers were having none of it and all the striking pilots were sacked. No Union officials lost their jobs as usual. When I joined RNAY Fleetlands I was multi-licensed, AFSLAET, in fact I had the same letters after my name as the Quality Manager but I could not get beyond Fitter. Our Union Rep sold us down the river and got elected as an MP. ALAE were making vague promises but they could not achieve much. SLAET joined with the RAeS but sank without trace after being asset stripped. Unions tried to get us in General Aviation to join up, but it is a large company thing so we stayed out. We were not lazy, we certainly did not receive large sums of money we just kept on employing a large number of people along with ourselves without interference from foreign bodies ( I’m Alright Jack springs to mind)