You lot do eat your young, as you have now shown! The price of Snr. Captain has now been 'benchmarked' hasn't it? Two years to the next negotiations and the die has been cast! The message has been sent loud and clear to Mr. Turnbull that you are willing to accept B scale wages without significant backlash. I have been gone from CX for a while now, (Life after CX is great btw!) but would like to offer some food for thought. I could vilify the AOA for not coming out strongly against this, but there have now been so many things they should have anticipated or at least reacted to. I could vilify the chaps that have taken your jobs on B scale in the twilight of their careers, but that is your job to make them uncomfortable at every opportunity! You ladies and gentlemen are the AOA, make your wishes known. Stop sitting idly by while your careers are being damaged day by day, inch by inch. Get involved and make your voices heard. The recent UAL contract has benchmarked the 744 capt job in the USA. I just want to make sure that you understand how much salary that is in total: the $340/hr translates to about $340,000 usd's per year, Keep in mind that is including credit hours, They generally get 8 to 10 credit hours per month for DT etc. They rarely fly more than 65 to 75 hrs seat time per mo. in the US. PLUS expenses_ about $400 usd/month, PLUS retirement of 11% of every dollar earned in ADDITION to your salary, usually resulting in a payment of 1 to 3 million usd's on retirement, PLUS a monthly payment on retirement of 30 to 60% of your final salary for the rest of your life. PLUS comprehensive Medical/Dental/Life insurance/Loss of Licence/Disability/, PLUS free staff travel after 5 or 10 years of service. To achieve this level of compensation in a cash only environment like CX's compensation would equate to about 400,000 usd's per year in total. Almost twice the CX pay for a captain on a base.
Do not take a 'damage control' stance with CX. You must re-establish the 'benchmark' at the appropriate level. For those you with American citizenship or a grean card, the handwritting is on the wall. Good luck to all of you, it sure looks like you will need it.
[This message has been edited by Fatbastard (edited 15 September 2000).]