THE AFAP NEED TO HELP THEMSELVES. I agree that there is little or no publicity or promotion of the AFAP's activities, wins and losses.
That said, of all of us reading this now how many are menbers of the AFAP? How many of us have even ASKED? I'll start off - no I am not a member but I have rung their office and a membership pack is in the mail to me now. I'm joining as soon as I get it.
Very few pilots come from "blue collar" backgrounds and I'd bet London to a brick that most of us think like
engine out in saying "I'm not pro-union either". Many of us in our late 20's and early 30's remember the union activism of the early 1980's and we still have negative connotations with Union politics. But a Union doesn't have to be all red-ragging trotsky-ites; the AFAP is a professional association as well as protecting your rights.
I have just ended a 2 1/2 year exile from Aviation, spent in underground Coal mining. I had been flying Chieftains (Chief Pilot, Science degree, ATPLs) for $650 pw (gross) plus CIR renewals. I moved to an underground mining job (zero experience, zero qualifications, zero interest, but I can lift hevvy fings) and membership of the CFMEU on $1,150 per week (gross). THAT is the benefit of sticking together. In the 1970s these guys were paid the equivalent of $400 pw.
If you are a member of the union you have some say in how it operates and behaves - it doesn't have to be another CFMEU, BLF or Wharfies union.
Similarly, membership of the union doesn't mean that you can't/won't work or that you want to make unreasonable demands on your employer.
HE might justify your $250pw and no super as "just business".
YOU can justify
your right to a fair wage and your legal entitlements as "just business" too.
Finally, how can the union campaign effectively if all of us in GA just whinge, complain and bitch and follow it up with "but I don't believe in unions."
Plenty of other posters on these forums have said it:
IF YOU WANT A CAREER, AND YOU BELIEVE IN THE INDUSTRY, STAND UP FOR YOUR RIGHTS.
www.afap.org.au
(03) 9699 4200
We must all start to look out for each other. START TODAY.