Not locals (or anybody else for that matter) who will be struggling to keep their marriage, ensure a better education other than the incoming national education for their children, increased financial stresses and coupled depression, struggle to get preflight and postflight rest in much more compressed living conditions and the huge detriment to income if they are not able to operate in all manors of mental and physical states. Nobody except for a few in 2018-19 signed up for this, and bar a psychopathic ladder climber, forcing a person to sign something with a gun held to their temple is nothing to be proud of.
The 'living' wage takes on a whole new meaning with safety ramifications that were clearly not factored into any of these cuts. A highly safety-sensitive job where massive financial penalties for missing certain duties whether UF or changes to the opaque roster is shocking, to say the least, and thus the higher likelihood of a major accident/incident /reduction in reporting is a very reasonable expectation.
Just like some political parties, the experiment has previously been run and the results were less than optimal. The decision-makers have not experienced your job for a second and other than a spreadsheet they are wholly unqualified to form opinions on your profession. Sadly a spreadsheet and insurance statistics are all that matter now.
The news of higher up's taking menial pay cuts for a rather short time provides the smoking gun evidence that either the CX Group is not in any imminent danger of collapse after receiving 27b in your tax dollars - increased to a total 39b bailout- with their silent new government investors or it's rapidly nearing the edge of a precipice and they want to fatten the top at the expense of putting the bottom on life support (pun and run-on sentence intended).
I believe what has happened, and the extent to which it did, is unwarranted and you all deserve better protections and respect than this.
While many were voicing their opinions on the inept CX Groups' slow response to the pandemic they have actually been busy since March bubbling up a toxic brew from an old recipe specifically crafted to hinder you and reward them. How ya like them apples!... Only time will tell how successful it was.
It's now time for you to take a page from their cookbook. Do your job and nothing more. Be proud and professional. Make your plan. Be smart. Get your research and networking going. Update your CV and get your life into a position where you can act as soon as the opportunity presents itself because it will! Most importantly, don't be afraid to take a measured risk because good things only come through change.
The safety and aircrew culture at many other airlines will be benefiting at the expense of CX in 12-24 months.
