blondeontour
Are you referring to the Eastern or Sunstate EBA?
Either way that information is wrong. Firstly no manager would ever send such a letter to crew on company letterhead and put their name to it. Secondly the Career Progression Agreement is between Qantas and the FAAA.
The following is from a newsletter on the faaa website
www.faaadomestic.org.au dated 18/6/03
" It is not true that either Eastern or Qantas have in any way suggested that Career Progression will be withdrawn. However, Management has advised that the new Agreement providing extra Career Progression positions, will not be signed until an EBA has been satisfactorily resolved."
If you are referring to the Eastern EBA, there was never any question that progression would be taken away but the increase in numbers which were agreed to prior to the EBA would not be signed off by Qantas until the EBA was voted up. A bit of industrial blackmail as I call it.
I think you will find the actual number was 32 MAM casuals were converted to permanent as noted by ozcabincrew as well this was confirmed in a newsletter to short haul crew from the FAAA dated 19 May 2005. Furthermore a newsletter was issued to Eastern crew on 10 June 2005 in regard to progression and part of this is as follows:
The Association has been contacted by several flight attendants enquiring into career progression and when it will take place.
"As members are most likely aware, the Association wrote to Qantas Short Haul flight attendants in a newsletter regarding their full time establishment, in particular, to advise of meetings that had been held with Qantas and arrangements that are to be put in place to address this issue. Amongst these arrangements, a commitment was given by Qantas to move some MAM flight attendants to full time positions in July this year, which in turn will trigger movement of career progression."
For your reference the FAAA has raised the issue of career progression in meetings with Qantas. Qantas will give start dates when it suits them, but lets hope they take a few more people from each airline considering progression last occured over a year ago and we cant hope for it to occur for another year after this group go whenever that will be.
There maybe movement in November when the short haulers go over to long haul but who knows, not even Qantas I would imagine. I am hoping the cabin crew manager for Eastern and Sunstate does not get involved in holding up the start dates and tries to use this as an incentive/black mail to get the Eastern EBA voted up but we can only wait and see. To date whenever crew raise this issue with her she is fully supportive and communicates to us that she is aware of how important this issue is to crew. So for now I am taking her word for it.
As for forgetting where she came from - the same could be said for many managers within the Qantas group that change careers from flight attendants to managers. I am not defending her, however everyone has the right to change career paths for whatever reason and it just so happens that our Manager is an ex FAAA President. You cannot seriously expect her as a cabin crew manager to put on her FAAA hat and deal with situations as she would have while representing cabin crew. She is accountable to Eastern and Qantas management, they pay her salary and she has KPI's to meet, she is not there to make us happy but to meet budgets and contribute to the profit of the airline just like every other manager.
You are wrong, wrong and wrong about the FAAA. Just take a quick look at the FAAA website and you will see the many newsletters written by DM in regard to the very issues you mention. The FAAA workload in regard to Eastern has increased dramtically and this can be evidenced by the level of communication between the association and Eastern crew. Progression will always be our number 1 issue because we live on the poverty line but now we have all these other issues to deal with and I personally feel the FAAA has been on top of any ugly issue that raises its head and its uncalled for, for you to say they are doing nothing.
I certainly hope you are not an Eastern flight attendant because if you are you dont check your mail box very often as the newsletters are distributed in a timely manner now and they are also e-mailed and they also available via the website.
Some time ago the FAAA challeged the company on interpretations in the commission. We won some and lost some. As for the changes implemented by the new cabin crew manager. Sadly nearly 99% are legal and within the bounds of the EBA. Just what would you like the FAAA to do about this? Sure we hate working 152 hours a month, get drafted all the time, receive SMS's at 4.00am on days off and receive calls during your rest, work on the 300 series on your own (casa approved). But this is all legal.
I suggest you become better informed before making such statements in the future. Or better still take it up with the FAAA. DM will be more than happy to clarify the FAAA positions, without her support things could have been a whole lot worse.
Ozcabincrew
Impulse/Jetstar progression has always ended up in Perth but only 4 Eastern flight attendants have ever gone to Perth and that was in April 2004 a further 15 crew progressed in July 2004 and they all went to Sydney or Melbourne.
But to answer your question we now have to state which bases you would like being Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane or Perth or All Bases. Quite a lot of crew have selected all bases meaning if Perth is the only base available there are more than enough prepared to go.