After years of sitting on the sidelines watching things on here, it is time to register. About the only place I can have my say without fear of retribution (unlike Qrewroom).
The holy grail of everything when you join Qantas is seniority. Your lifestyle, promotions etc. all revolve around your number. When you start, you are at the bottom, cop all the crap that the roster has to offer, work every Christmas, no weekends or days you want off, are almost always on standby or call etc etc. As people join, you move up and things get better. Whether or not the system is fair is another debate, but at the moment it is the system we live under and by giving some a head start is just not cricket.
Why is it that cadets get to join the company with 2 years plus seniority on everyone else? No crappy trips, no blanklines (which equals higher pay than others who join on the same day) etc, and 2 years less until promotion? In the case of the 330, I believe they are being placed close to the top of the seniority pile on this (they get to enjoy the spoils straight away that others have to wait years for). What is completely wrong is that it pushes people who have done some time further down the pile.
There have been threads on Qrewroom, but the majority of punters (except mainly former cadets who support the whole 'give them seniority' scheme) are reluctant to comment as anyone in Qantas who generally mentions anything about cadets becomes a marked person in the eyes of some. I am like the majority who don't have a problem with cadets, I don't care that the cadet program exists, I just don't believe they should get preferential treatment when it comes to seniority in the company.
All the while, AIPA struggles with internal politics due to the former bitter ex-COM making accusations of the newly elects acting without due authority from the membership, thereby not having time to properly deal with this sort of crap. What I cannot accept is that the former COM actually put this deal through which alters the goal posts and gives people seniority they should not have (without the authority their current argument is based around). You get a number the day you join QF. This has always been the case, and always should under the present system. The former COM cannot also accept that this deal was one which really pissed just about everyone off as all can see how unfair and wrong it is (they wonder why they were given the boot so royally - being so arrogant that they could not actually see what the membership wanted). Not just those directly affected, but those like myself who have nothing to lose as we are further up the pile, but cringe to think about how AIPA has sold out some of its members, thereby making me wonder what they will do to us.
With regard to AIPA, I believe it is about 200 people below those with the seniority. I really believe that AIPA should refund the membership dues all these people have paid in the last 2 years or so. At the end of the day, these people have paid these membership dues to AIPA, while AIPA has advanced the interests of a small group of people who have not been financial members. Shouldn't it be doing the opposite?
Sorry for the long rant, but don't want to get involved in Qrewroom, particularly as I don't want to put a target on my melon commenting on this sensitive topic.
