I think it will happen...airline management will ensure it.
I won't need to be every pilot in Dunnunder...just a large majority....and then any pilot wishing to be employed will need to join.
A sliding scale of membership dues ranging from $5/yr for unemployed newbies just starting out to an equitable range of percentages from a GA C210 pilot through to an airline captain.
Perhaps all it will take is all the current unions, AFAP and the various pilot groups reps getting together and forming an alliance...pooling resources so to speak...once it gets rolling you might find large numbers of QF pilots joining, relegating AIPA to the sidelines...perhaps someone like the IFALPA could provide the forum and expertise to see it accomplished...they'd probably welcome it.
I feel sure that among all the lessons management learned in 89 which they have used against us since they also learned one very important lesson...don't let it happen again....the fact that none of the airlines involved in the dispute still exists surely exercises their minds?
It's not even about pay imho...it's a raft of other issues. To get caught up in winning pay rises for all and sundry would gaurantee zero public support.
It should be about ensuring that young pilots getting started are actually paid the current award in all its forms....and that any employer who tries to circumvent that are denied a pilot workforce for as long as their greed/stupidity continues.
That pilots dragging themselves up the greasy pole are not forced to pay for every endorsement along the way.
That pilots have good professional indemnity insurance, Life Insurance and Loss of Licence.
That there is a recognised professional body that will stand for what's safe and right when it comes to FTLs and fatigue issues, rather than dickheads who were so afraid of the big bad world they never left University.
Ditto protection for pilots who refuse to fly unserviceable/overloaded etc.
That security issues are addressed in a sensible way without insulting and degrading our profession.
Ditto licencing issues.
If we were all united then no one airline would be held at some (beancounter) imagined unfair disadvantage.
Airline beancounters are madly trying to compete on price alone...and making employees pay directly for their bonuses and whatever profits the airline makes. They must be made to accept the true costs of the operation of an airline...if that means an extra 20 bucks on the price of every ticket then so be it...everything else in life costs more as time goes by...why are airline tickets different to the price of any other consumer item?
The price of all this may, indeed almost certainly will be, the (forcefull) exclusion (blackbanning) from the industry of pilots who do not want to join or who try and short circuit/backstab/undecut or whatever other adjective comes to mind...tough titty, we don't want them in the industry anyway.
I'd join such a union in a heart beat....that does NOT mean the next week I'd go on strike for a 29% ambit payrise for myself or a GA C210 pilot...but I'd support true industrial reform that puts meaning back in 'professional' and practicle, realistic safety ahead of management bonuses.
If we stay away from pay issues, for the time being, even the Liberal Govt would be hard pressed making us look bad.
Chuck.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 7th Mar 2005 at 14:30.