It's official - we are now in dispute with the company! I have just seen the latest letter from BALPA, posted on the BALPA website, but which is also being sent out by post to all members. Having read it, I personally believe it to be a balanced and accurate view of our current dispute. Along with, I presume, virtually 100% of BALPA members I will unreservedly give my full support to the CC and vote to both reject the pay offer and give the green light to industrial action further down the road should it be required.
The jaw-dropping revelations of the remuneration packages and bonuses being offered to our managers and directors have, in my judgement, been the catalyst to the previously unheard of support for BALPA. I was, for example, fascinated to read of our latest non-executive director's salary for one day's work a month being £40K a year - nice work if you can get it! What on earth can one of these guys do for easyJet in one day a month? After, tea and biscuits, lunch, a nice chat with your mates and so on, there must be barely time to drink a couple of glasses of wine before deciding who gets what share options. There again, what do we know? We are just the idle layabouts who fly the aircraft that bring easyJet its profit.
I believe that the new CEO, Andy Harrison, has a couple of weeks to make contact with the pilots (ie BALPA CC) to defuse the situation. He is still an unknown quantity and as such can present himself as an 'honest broker'. This situation could be incredibly easily solved by a reasonable approach from him. If he does not act quickly he will rapidly find himself in the middle of a pilots' strike that once started will be hard to stop. I recognise the need for caution and compromise here and there is a huge willingness on the pilots' side to find a middle road. Incidentally, a middle road is not one where we lose money and our directors gain it!
To all those non-members out there - this is your moment to make a difference. There may be a time ahead when for the first time in my memory the pilots of a British company withdraw their labour in support of a good future for all employees and not just a few. Please do not stand by and watch your colleagues fight your battles for you - come and join BALPA. There has never been a more important time for us to be together.