Decline of Terms and Conditions Industrywide
Forgive me for flogging this old horse to death, but I have never been quite satisfied with the answers over the years.
Reading posts about how every airline is cutting back on t's and c's, hearing how poor new contracts are, and knowing how much my own employer is trying to reduce our agreements despite record profits, I wonder how, as a community, we have allowed this to happen.
15 years ago, a CEO of an airline said that if a monkey turned up on his doorstep with a CPL, he would put him/her in the R/H seat of a jet, and pay them 30k p.a. No doubt with a Final Salary pension, LoL, Private health, share options, etc.
Now the monkey's brother/sister turns up on the doorstep with a ATPL and TYPE RATING and still gets 30k p.a. AND nothing else. I don't believe that employment opportunities now are that much different from then. We seemed to have allowed, industrywide, the decision-makers to get away with it. If I was them I would too.
I suppose what I am trying to say is that we all must bear responsibility for allowing this to happen. Maybe it came about during the time in the mid 90's when things were tight and concessions were made to help an airline's survival. But now, with just about every airline posting good, healthy profits, are our t's and c's being allowed to still be eroded. Call me a Communist, but I thought we should all benefit from our employers' success.
The questions that I want to ask to my fellow pilots is; are we all now pi55ed off enough now to actually do something about it? If we are, what? and, judging by the level of dissatisfaction, is BALPA the right medium to do it through?
I put these questions to the house!