Originally Posted by
Slippery_Pete
Apparently, flying 70-80 hours a month, mainline SH FOs make double what a NA Captain makes 🤯🤯🤯
If NA pilots agree to anything other than an immediate 70-100% pay increase, they’re pretty much condemning their company to fail. Even with a 50% pay rise, there’s no motivation to stay. The place will be gutted by other operators and they’ll be cancelling every second sector.
That’s exactly what has happened at NJS, and now they have no-one to operate all their shiny new jets. Gissing and Safe were probably so proud of what they achieved at NJS with their “Strategic Imperatives” BS - but all it did was condemn NJS to certain failure and will require them to be absorbed into mainline.
The slice and dice/play everyone against each other approach has worked for the last 35 years. But now airlines in Australia need to wake up quick smart to the fact that you either pay and treat your pilots well, or you watch them leave and your company fails.
I think the best outcome here is that NA pilots all vote with their feet and leave. Then mainline will realise they can’t play everyone against each other, and the network pilots get absorbed into mainline with an 01 Jan 2024 seniority number and operate under the SH EBA.
Jetconnect reportedly coming back in house. Probably they’ll have no option but to do the same with the cluster that has become of NJS. Maybe Network will even get absorbed. Alliance massively struggling to retain pilots more than 12 months too. The industrial tactics they’re playing don’t work when there’s a massive demand for pilots. Look at what’s happening in the US majors - the game changed from playing pilots against each other for years, to suddenly each CEO coming out and offering bigger packages than the last to try and keep bums on seats. The same thing is going to happen here.
And if you’re in Network or NJS and on the hold file - you’re never getting a mainline start date - because your current employer is desperately short of pilots as everyone else leaves. You won’t be released. You’d be better off resigning and then calling Q recruitment to change your application to an external. Otherwise, you can spend the next 40 years doing Pilbara returns on your day off for $350.
QF management have openly said there’s no staff shortage at NJS. They’ve got 150+ pilots to crew 16 (and reducing) aircraft and will have even more pilots (internationals) to crew only 7 aircraft next year. NA can be crewed by cadets easily if they get short enough. There’s more then enough people who want to live in Perth to keep that company going.
You’ll often hear crew carry on about Pilot shortages stating ‘they’ll have to offer a bonus soon or they won’t have any crew’. This is complete rubbish, you had your chance to vote down your agreement and you voted it up. Tough luck sunshine. Hopefully NA don’t make the same mistake.