I am really impressed at the number of you guys who are so against the concept of ASL, but are working so vociferously to ensure it's continued existence and longevity. The last ASL member will retire [ at age 60 ] sometime in 2030, "Ouch", that is a long time to live with a thorn in your side. However I don't think the company is planning for that to be the case. For the last year they have been quietly de-identifying the ASL crews, CX uniforms, moving their mailboxes into the common mail room. If you are concerned about the company using ASL in some form of out of seniority manner, what better way to prevent it than allow ASL to join the AOA so they have some industrial protection against exploitation, which will harm your careers.
As has alraedy been stated ASL will benefit from the AOA salary negotiations, why not let them contribute to that effort by becoming members.
Concern has been expressed about freighter captains operating pax aircraft out of seniority. I believe the CX F/O's who have taken early commands on the freighters, are not permitted to bid back to the pax fleet until their seniority permits. I think this is an excellent idea that the AOA should enforce rigidly, in order to protect guys careers.
There has been a bit of vitriolic rhetoric about a second window of opportunity for ASL to join Veta, so what? Should the AOA, ASL, and the company be able to find common ground for this to happen, would'nt this finally get rid of this pain in the side called ASL, rather than waiting thirty years for it to happen. The ASL joiners would be bottom of the seniority list, and remain on freighters until they were senior enough to bid across to the pax fleet. Surely this is in everyones interest. Come on guys, don't lose sight of what you really want to achieve.
Apologies for stuffing up that bit about Dragonair and the AOA. Just shows that if ASL were allowed to join the AOA, we would have better informed aircrew.