you will of course be disappointed and possibly alarmed by the support BALPA has enjoyed from the pilots at easyJet.
Not in the least, Norman. One is, however, mindful of David Hannum's witticism, that there's a sucker born every minute. BALPA membership runs at around eight hundred quid annually for you, I'd reckon, and you evidently feel you're getting value for money. Interestingly though, both you Orange folk and we at Ryanair are experiencing the self same phenomenon in respect of the kind of 'solidarity' you advocate. We both have around the same number of UK bases and a broad and growing €uropean presence. Only trouble is, that those outside, in your case the UK, and in ours the Dublin base, don't give a rats arse about your claims and never will. Bangkok whorehouse, remember?
Now then, here's something I rarely do. Professor David
Metcalf of the LSE wrote a balanced view of the decline in British Unionisation over the years, entitled Resurgence or Perdition. You're evidently in favour of the former, I observe and advocate the latter. I offer it to you for your review and consideration, Norman. The work can be summarised in the following way. The root of union power comes from a closed shop and thereby, an implicit strike threat. You can't have one without the other, can you Norman, and that's what you're on about. The major fly in that ointment, though, is that there has been a linear decline in union membership in the private sector since the end of the Great Patriotic War (Soviet affectation intentional) and it isn't going to be reversed, no matter how much the Merv Granshaw's of this world would have it otherwise. Add to that the fact that margins, in your airline anyway, are razor thin at the best of times, the slightest change in, say, the price of oil, and your management simply has no alternative but to shave predictable costs, like at the intersection of pay, productivity and rostering, even where they've been cut to the bone already. I feel for you, Norman, I really do, but the real enemy is your business model. It doesn't work and your airline is, and has been for some time, sailing perilously close to the wind. You may care to consider that in the present climate of M&A. You think your squeals are unheard in Reykjavik? When the rabbit starts screaming, the fox comes running.....but not to help.
In short, for all BALPA's faults, they still represent the brightest hope for our company and yours.
Oh, Norman. You must be in pain to offer up this oft regurgitated hairball of the damned.
Success in the marketplace is the brightest hope for your airline and mine, and, though it doesn't need mentioning, we're head and shoulders in front. The most profitable airline on earth, in fact, to quote the analysts. As much as I enjoy my job, I honestly don't believe I could survive happily with your rostering system. Its appalling, and, I note with considerable irony, the welcome gift to Easyjet from BALPA. Do you chaps really fly 3 earlies, 2 lates, 2 days off and commence on earlies again? How on God's earth do you manage?
At Ryanair, we have 5-3, stable rosters, home every night, and when the new 4-4 rostering system is introduced, there'll be no shortage of people knocking at our door, Norman, you among them I hope. Tell ya what, PM me with your CV and I'll handle your application personally. I'll even guarantee your choice of base so long as its neither Girona or Skavsta and will give you a personal introduction to the Dwarf, Merv's counterpart on this side of the Irish Sea, so that you can see with your own eyes just what kind of clueless troll 800 quid per year buys you in Ireland.
mass BALPA membership is one of the tools we will use to making it happen.
No, Norman. Wrong again I'm afraid. Mass BALPA membership will serve only to buy you and your airline a plot
here, and in the case of Easyjet, sooner rather than later.