srjumbo:
Although I am a UK based BALPA member, I see in every day life that BALPA does not seem to do much for pilots based outside the UK.
A small example: currently all Orly based crew are in a grey zone. ORY is no longer a "temporary base" but they are now a "secondary base" which means that EZY does not have to pay them a temporary base allowance, but it gives ORY crew no security whatsoever. Besides the obvious cost factor, another reason in cutting the temporary base allowance was (according rumours) some (jealous?) complaints from UK based pilots that ORY based crew were earning more money because of the temporary base allowance.
It sort of puts us into a simular Ryanair (divide and conquer) situation with a company basing people left and right all over Europe, without caring too much about the consequenses.
BALPA knows about these issues, but simply does not seem to care or is incapable of coming to their defense. They just seem to follow managementīs way of thinking and accept the newly invented "secondary base" definition.
I donīt want to hijack this thread to discuss EZY issues, but I just want to use the above example to warn Ryanair pilot not to get their hopes up too much about REPA/BALPA coming to their rescue.
Nevertheless I would still recommend all Ryanair pilots to join REPA because it certainly beats the alternative which is
MOL. 