Australian pilots have become used to management and IR techniques that create continual downward pressure on terms and conditions within the Industry. Many would not have been adults let alone commercial pilots when ATPL’s carried the advantage of scarcity. I’d just like to point out that the very same systems that drive relentlessly towards labour efficiency can also accommodate, and allow for, changes in the opposite direction. The USA is currently a good example of exactly that and the following article (which is less than a week old) might help shift paradigms around what is possible for pilot groups in Australia over the next few years.
Pilots at American
rejected an offer last November. They reached another agreement in late July, which was renegotiated again after
United Airlines approved a tentative deal with its pilots. Pilots at
Delta Air Lines won big pay raises earlier this year.
Pilots at Southwest Airlines are still in negotiations.
Wage rates for American pilots will rise at least 41% and perhaps more if United pilots ratify their agreement, according to a spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association.
David Koenig - AP - Mon Aug 21, 5:13PM CDT
Now is the time for a ‘step change’ but the window won’t be open for ever. The longer a pilot group let’s negotiations drag out before playing hard-ball the greater the risk of the window closing due to war, pandemic, stock market collapse etc etc
There are many agreements coming up for negotiation over the next 18 months. ‘Hard and fast’ should be the Unions new motto.