I have done a bit of a straw poll in the LGW crewroom today and spoken to people with a wide range of opinions. Everyone I spoke to said they would vote 'Yes'. It seems to me that this is going to go through with quite a substantial majority. Informed rumour has it that easyJet now has just under 80% BALPA membership (I cannot verify that but I have every reason to believe it is true). The results are there for all to see - having started with BALPA membership less than 50% and a derisory offer of a pay freeze for our European bases and a pay rise less than inflation for the UK bases, we have just had a 10% offer over 2 years.
For those of you interested in facts and figures, my spreadsheet calculations tell me that a captain after 2 years service and therefore in receipt of the 5% 'loyalty bonus', flying 500 sectors per year, will by October be earning £92,900 gross per annum. (That figure is calculated by grossing up all sector pay and assumes 12 ASBYs per year.) It is not as good as Virgin or BA but it is still a pretty reasonable deal. When compared to Ryanair for example who have no pension or anything else for that matter, I think we are now better paid than they are.
There is no doubt in my mind that this pay deal will be voted through. Our excellent CC are now in a big battle over the far more pressing issues universally described as 'lifestyle' within the company. Issues up for grabs include 5/2-5/4 rostering, base transfer policy, TRSS, Direct Entry Commands, European base pay scales, seniority lists and so forth. No one is under any illusion how difficult these negotiations may prove to be, but we should nonetheless be quietly pleased at the small but steady progress we are seeing in turning this airline into a 'great place to work'. As a late arrival into the ranks of BALPA, I for one am extremely grateful for the hard work and dedication of our CC throughout the stressful negotiations of the last few months.