Originally Posted by pilothouse
You want me to just JOIN yet you and an unspecified number of others are already members and have offered not a single incentive. You now want ME to join and recruit others!
What are you talking about? What more incentive do you need than bettering your lousy terms and conditions?
Whatever bad experiences you have had of 'BALPA' I cannot comment on as I know nothing about them. I am also not a pilot in JET2, but I take an enlightened INDUSTRY view of how ALL pilots in the UK can improve their 'lot' and that is by all companies having strong representation (like the percieved 'better' companies already have). I offer my view as a possible way forward, and in my opinion the ONLY way forward, as I have yet to be convinced that any other form of representation could work.
I take my hat off to Silverhawk for trying with the T&G. He has been big enough to come back on here and openly admit that it has been a non-starter. I admire him for that and it would appear you need a few more pilots with some conviction to sort something out for your combined betterment.
I do not wish to appear personal, but pilothouse, what do you want? Spoon feeding? You keep making comments about how everyone else should do something for you, but seem unprepared to be pro-active. Why do others need to come to you to convince you? You obviously haven't reached the point when you consider 'enough is enough' with regards to your terms and conditions. This will be true of many pilots in your company. Look at the pain the easyJet pilots had to go through before they reached that point late last year and eventually realized that the way forward was to make a stand. They increased their BALPA membership and sent a message to management that has resulted in their recent successful pay negotiations. I fear that the majority of JET2 pilots have not reached that point in your company and people like Silverhawk are banging their heads against the wall.....
If you read through my previous entries in this thread you will see the 'incentives' that I have offered, which make BALPA good value for money. I can only speak from personal experience and I know that my (now 1% due to length of time as a member) have been more than paid back through successful pay negotiations which have yielded more than 1% above what I could have negotiated on a personal level and other enhancements to my terms and conditions, like Block Window Protection, rostering agreements, hotac and travel minimum levels of service, leave bidding, longhaul bidding, 10 pairs of annual guaranteed days off, pension (a mute point, but the ONLY Defined Benefit pension scheme still open to new joiners in the UK airlines) and flexible working where days off can be sold back to the company. There are more besides. All these have been negotiated through a strong BALPA membership, but I make the point again that it is not 'big' BALPA, but a strong company membership giving the elected Company Council the mandate to go to the negotiating table with the strength of support that can yield results. Want any more incentives before you make a choice?
It is the strength of feeling and determination within the individuals to collectively stand up to a management who are just doing what they are paid to do, ie keep costs as low as possible, that will ultimately lead to the individuals deciding to take action. I feel you certainly are not at that stage pilothouse and if the majority of others in JET2 feel the same then you have a few years yet of lousy terms and conditions ahead. You have a high number of pilots who have come from varied backgrounds who are not passionate enough about seeing JET2 as a career airline and an awful lot of new young guys who are still in their honeymoon period of being ever so grateful to have a jet job.
So it's not just a case of current BALPA members not being inclined to get the ball rolling, its about lack of motivation amongst the majority. I personally feel that as a pilot group you will have to go through the pain before you reach the point where the motivation occurs to an extent that can be channelled into action.
I don't see the point in 'big' BALPA running a recruitment meeting. The info about membership is all out there already. You can read it all by clicking on the BALPA website. You can read all about the other membership benefits there too. What BALPA can't do is motivate you. You need to do that yourself, but by the sounds of it you will blame that on BALPA too.
If you want something you have to get off your proverbial @rses and make it happen, because all the time you sit here typing about no-one motivating you, the longer it will be before your position is bettered.
Good luck.
PP