Personally I have always been 'anti' BALPA and I speak to many who havent had a good experience, but I think this is the only representative body now and one we must support if we are to get anything from a company which I am willing to give to..but not for no reward.
I cancelled my subscription to BALPA after the 'free' student period expired as both my father and many of his collegues agreed BALPA got paid a lot of money for doing very little. Indeed it is our company council that work on our behalf for no extra pay and use BALPA's 'framework' for support. We need to support them by joining, not BALPA.
I think this latest offer for many is the last straw. I know many are happy at easyJet and they gave me and many others their first break but I have no romantic affiliation to them because as they are demonstrating now, they hold their pilot workforce and indeed the cabin crew in disregard and as an annoying expense and one they seem only to happy to lose. RW's speech to the cabin crew on their graduation sums it all up 'I dont expect you to be here in 2 years..'
The 10 year book was the biggest piece of propaganda even the WWII propaganda office would have been proud of, and as for my 10 year present from easyJet, well they can have it..(or at least someone on eBay for both..)
We always get thank you emails from Mike et al saying 'Thanks for your patience and professionalism at a time of operational disruption' yet they dont seem to reward us financially, in fact we get an overall net pay cut, and loss of T & C's. I dont want to lose crew food for a percentage increase in Pension..infact I dont want to lose anything..Not when we are not cocking up and losing money as pilots. We do our job and get recognition for that by a thank you email. I pass my sim-checks, dont crash planes and dont go 'sick' despite a leave system which is quite frankly a joke. Any other manager would get a bonus for his hard work, what do we get..the offer of a net pay cut.
I am sorry but if fuel is costing so much I am not willing to subsidise the passengers by taking a pay cut because easyJet is unwilling to pass on increasing fuel costs, which every airline is having to pay, onto its customers..
Do we really need a 'Step Change Implementation Manager' and all the other titles I hear coming out of easyLand in the glossy sheets sent to my home address telling me about how all is well and good but we need to be taking less and less fuel, but we are still safety concious? Ryanair operate more aircraft on half the staff so I would be looking closer to home rather than pi$$ing off those on the coalface who do their jobs..
For me I have just rejoined BALPA today as has at least one other person I know and I just hope we can stop this persistant degredation of T & C's before it is too late. I am quite happy at easyJet, I love the Airbus and if I was still on the 737 I would be actively applying to Ryanair now, at least I could take the same crap with another 1k in my pocket rather than the 'our people are our number one asset but we still treat you like turd' attitude.
I think it is simple. Rejoin BALPA, take the cheap initial fee and see how it goes for a year if things are the same then yeh, leave disgruntled again but at least we can show our little bit of support. I know pilots are a spineless bunch at the best of times but this could be such a better place with a bit of pressure the other way for a change rather than whinging in the cruise and not doing anything about it.