In Trim,
What you are saying is sensible stuff but it goes away from the main thrust of the arguement at the time, ie that CFE were flying BA routes and therefore undermining 'proper' (mainline) BA by doing the same thing for poorer pay & conditions. The thin end of the wedge was getting thicker and it wouldn't be too long before our illustrious management decided this was such a good deal that CFE and Co could do BA shorthaul and it was not beyond the realms of possibilty that JMC could have ended up doing the longhaul side of things. The Ayling dream of a virtual airline.
What BALPA, and by that I mean we, decided was that this broke our scope agreement with BA (that BA routes should be flown by BA aircraft and BA pilots) and that this was not good for the long-term prospects of BA mainline. EoG was already the cheap option and there was no way we were going to erode those conditions any more. So how about the idea of raising CFE's conditions, agreeing with the company that since they would now be BA pilots on BA T & Cs, they could now fly any of the routes and the company can have the flexibility of using the 737 & RJ when it wished.
At the time our management were going for their, now standard, divide and rule plan. It would only affect SH so the LH guys won't take any notice, type thing. Fortunately, ALL of us saw this for what it was worth. BA trying to undercut our existing T & Cs. That's why there was a fantastic repsonse to industrial action if it was required.....and why the company backed down pretty sharpish.
This is not a story of greedy pilots going for more, but a story of pilots just trying to protect what they have. It was great news for the CFE pilots (I hope they'll agree) and the company got it's flexibilty wish. Of course, things have changed dramatically recently, but that is not an excuse (as the company is trying to use it as) to then toss out all the existing agreements on the basis of cost-cutting. Rod needs to take a VERY hard look at where the money is going and if he looked out of his office at all the coffee drinkers down by the stream, I'm sure he can get a very good idea.
I can understand your arguement that by bringing CFE up, we have increased the costs and so now endanger them as well as mainline. Well, how far do you go with this stuff? There will always be a cheaper option and a few hundred pilots on higher dosh is not the cause of BA's current problems and would not be the solution. BA pilots are very efficient and the cheapest longhaul crews in the World. It's the huge, unecessary, infra-structure that surrounds us that needs to be looked. We're an airline and should stick to flying aircraft. We are not a computer company, employment agency, health service, education department or consultation service and should stop trying to be so. That's where the money saving has to come.
Cheers for now,
Recover