We are all at the cross roads of where our profession is heading! Anyone with any small amount of intuition, forsight or business accumen can clearly see that unless some of the serious issues that will effect the future of our careers are tackeled now, and with a united force (let the barage of quotes begin, " It's been tried before and failed, look at 89", " Everyones looking out for themselves", " Lets compare surgins, lawyers etc etc") its time we forgot all this crap and looked inwards towards each other and ourselves and really grew some backbone and gained some sence of pride in ourselves and each other.
Lets not just sit hear and complain about what our management are trying to do to our profession and let it happen right in front of our eyes, lets be pro-active instead of being just a reactionary group of professionals, what should be happening when one group of pilots from company XYZ are about to BOHICA (Bend Over Here It Comes Again), pilots from other companies should forget all their narrow minded self serving commitments and stand together as a group of professionals willing to uphold the very institutions and ethics of professionalism we display everyday online in the cockpit.
History has proven that the current form of representation we have is not working. Our representatives in my small and meaningless opinion are very similar to all of us who are only there to serve their best interests (and preserve their B727 check Captains pay etc etc.) at the expence of our conditions and professionalism. Its also been proven that our comments, arguments, suggestions seem to always pass unheeded, especially when EBA negotiations are underway. And why may you all ask does this happen time and time again, its because firstly we let this happen, secondly our best interests are not acted upon, and thirdly the ties between our representatives and our managements is too cosy for our liking.
You may all ask the question how do we rectify this problem?
Firstly we gain some moral fibre and sence of pride in ourseleves and gain some upper hand in stopping our management from down grading, or should I say down playing our professionalism, (I bet if GD or BG or the general public were sitting in seat A or B, and the number 1 engine is on fire, would they be thinking about shareholders expectations, yields, squeezing the last possible cent out of every possible department, of course not, they would be thinking I hope the people at the pointy end dont f#%^ this up).
I pose the question of starting a unified group of the whole collective pilot body in this country that uses independant, highly qualified industrial/law experts that are total untouchable in regards to the above comments, that once their tasks are completed they move on (their contract finishes) and our current represention is used as a policing tool in regards to the finalised agreements.
Do any of my fellow professionals agree?
How do we go about doing this?
Will any common sence prevail?