Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Australian International Pilots Association
Locked Bag 747
Botany NSW 1455
Attention: Captain Ian Woods
President AIPA
Cc: All Jetstar Pilots
Dear Captain Woods,
It is necessary to write to you to clarify the position of the Jetstar Pilot Council and it’s support of the proposed variations to our existing EBA.
A majority of the Jetstar Pilot Council members, of which there are five, have agreed to support and promote the proposed variation.
The Jetstar Pilot Council is the elected party which represents the Jetstar Pilot Group on all industrial matters, and does so with a clear mandate.
We have taken the decision to support these changes following a process of negotiation which occurred over a five month period.
These negotiations resulted in the drafting of the proposed variations which we believe provide the mechanism for working with the company in securing the best opportunity for continued and sustained growth for the pilots we represent .
At all times the negotiations between Jetstar management and the Jetstar Pilot Council were cordial and constructive.
Both Parties remained mindful of the each others position in respect of our professional engagement and the continuance of a close working relationship, regardless of the outcome of the negotiations.
I have now on several occasions made this position clear to yourself and other members of the AIPA Committee.
The correspondence which you have recently composed and distributed via electronic means to our pilot members is misleading in that:
1) I have made it clear to yourself and other members of the AIPA Committee that at no time during negotiations with the Jetstar management team did myself or any other member of the Jetstar Pilot Council feel in any way under duress, nor were we threatened or coerced.
2) I have clearly stated to yourself on more than one occasion that the possibility of the company using a North American crewing company, was an assumptions made by myself as a result of exploring the availability of suitable pilots.
These explorations were effected through discussions with personal associates not related to the Qantas group.
This option or outcome was at no time proffered by the Jetstar management team as a crewing solution.
There exists no evidence to support your assertion that any Jetstar Pilot Council member has expressed either to yourself, nor to any AIPA Committee member, any feeling of threat or duress.
I have spoken to each Jetstar Pilot Council member today and have confirmed that no such conversations have taken place.
Your call to our pilot body through the unsolicited correspondence of recent days is not welcomed by the Jetstar Pilot Council, and we will advise our pilot group not to respond.
AIPA’s claim that it has the interest of every Qantas group pilot at heart is quite simply too little too late.
It is perceived by those Jetstar pilots with whom I have had the opportunity to contact, as a thinly veiled attempt to disrupt our progress in securing the opportunities presented to us.
Most feel it is hard to believe that AIPA could represent or act on our behalf in a fair and impartial manner which would secure the best result for the Jetstar Pilot Group.
AIPA would have been afforded the opportunity to attend as observers, any negotiation between the Jetstar Pilot Council and the Jetstar management team, had any pilot in the Jetstar Pilot Group who is a full and financial member of AIPA, requested such attendance.
To the knowledge of the Jetstar Pilot Council, no such request was made.
Your claim that the variation is in itself deceptive in respect to it’s references to “Wide Body” not “Long Haul” is an insult to the entire Jetstar Pilot Group.
Throughout all negotiations and subsequent discussions with the pilot members, it has been clearly understood that this variation reflects the introduction and operation of Wide Body aircraft into the Jetstar fleet.
It is not a variation in respect to long haul or international operations by Jetstar as Jetstar already conduct international operations.
Should you continue in these attempts to disrupt the negotiations and subsequent vote, we of the Jetstar Pilot Council believe your committee is seriously and potentially irreversibly threatening this opportunity for Jetstar pilots to gain access to future growth and the inherent employment security.
We would expect you to retract those comments in your recent correspondence identified herein as misleading and incorrect.
Your Faithfully
Rick Heaton
President
Jetstar Pilot Council
Is this the beginning of the end?