Firstly, hawke eye i congratulate you on your last post. Despite your provocative remarks at times, (to which i will always respond to
credit should be given where it is deserved, and your last post sums up the situation very well.
Also, we do have petty squabbles both in this forum and outside it, amongst crew, however your comments about the L/H FAAA leadership are appreciated, even though at times you take your swipe at them, from my perspective indeservedly.
Back to the point however, Eden99 has also described the issue very well... i.e. we have reached a point where it is appropriate that amendments to the bid system be considered by crew.
This doesn't mean that there will be unilateral changes agreed to by the FAAA, I am not suggesting that, but what i am suggesting is that the time has come that crew in L/H be at least asked whether they continue to by majority to support the system as it is or if crew by majority want some alternatives to be examined in the form of changes to the current system that will make it more equitable for all.
Continuing to be in denial and asserting that everyone will get the benefit of the current arrangements "in time" does not wash any longer.
Since 2002,there has been no full time recruitment in L/H and any recruitment in the forseeable future looks bleak.
In these circumstances, there is no valiod argument that a system that gives everything to a few and hardly anything to a much larger group, can be considered fair.
The question for all of us to decide then, is whether we are prepared to continue to prop up an unfair system.
So there is no confusion, i am junior in my category but have strongly supported the bid system. However, realities have to be confronted and the recent legislative changes that will give more power to the employer and the current challenge to the bid system in the Commission give extreme urgency to the need for a re-evaluation.
The L/H FAAA senior leadership is closely monitoring the situation and hawk eye and everyone else can be assured our best efforts will be made to ensure that control over this issue is not taken away from us by other parties like the Commission.
What this also demonstrates, in spectacular terms , is what happens when we are not flexible and others then drive the agenda.
Perhaps the call by the senior leadership of the L/H FAAA to be flexible over the JFK dispensation in order to protect flying and generally the need to be flexible in all arenas is now starting to make sense to the critics.
If flexibility, in light of this almost authoritarian industrial regime that we live in, is not demonstrated, then pressure will mount from other sources to impose change on us....i.e. the current bid system challenge in the Federal Industrial Commission.
Also to pre-empt some in here who demand nonsense of the FAAA L/H....... there will not necessarily be much official comment from the L/H FAAA on this sensitive issue,as it may prejudice matters.
Rest assured however, that leadership will be shown on this issue just as it was on the JFK issue. Leadership is not always about doing what appears to be popular, it's about doing what is required to protect the members' interests.