view from Waterside
Rzw30,
It is truly very sad if things are so bad at your end that people are committing suicide. I'm very sorry to hear it and, given that sort of pressure, I can understand a lack of sympathy for the pilot group which, let's face it, has an easy life (I speak as one - flew 800 hours short haul last year and it's still part time, whatever pilots who've never had another job in their lives will tell you).
On the specific issue of the pension I think what is becoming apparent is that all the talk of new aircraft is basically a bit of a smoke screen - or rather a half truth. What NAPS pilots perceive is that they will lose out massively in order that managers can achieve the 10% operating margin and so secure bonuses of around 250%. This is an abhorent equation - it is truly disgusting to find flight ops managers saying "oh yes, of course we'll still get our bonuses while you are 40% worse off in retirement".
Pilots are one of the very few educated work groups in the country able to stand up to that sort of nastiness because they have managed to organise themselves into a unionised workforce.
Moreover, for those of us on BARP, the situation is actually worse - we will be lucky to retire at age 65 on a decent pension which, because of the nature of the NAPS proposals, will be reduced by around a quarter if the changes go through. And with longer times to command etc that will result if the retirement age for NAPS increases, many of us will be looking to move on from BA soon.
It is a sad state of affairs for one of Britain's icons to be managed by such short termist crooks. It is true that there are many inefficiencies to be found in BA and these should be addressed - we could fly 900 hours short haul for instance - but I think attacking the pension is the wrong move and, sadly, there are troubled times ahead if the company doesn't back down.