Captain PitBull said:
Sadly not. The first attack was when they closed naps to new joiners. You couldn't see it then, and you still don't see it now. He was wrong!
I am, (thank God) no longer a part of the great BA thing, and am once again enjoying a Regional life in a smaller Company which has a small Manager - employee ratio, and a similar lifestyle to that which I lost some four-five years ago. I reiterate my total support for the BA pilots, anyone who does not think that BA, (like it or hate it), is actually the standard bearer for UK Ts and Cs has completely lost the plot. If BA get shafted today, then it will be everyone else tomorrow. I have had many a debate with Hand and Tandem, usually to a score draw depending on who you wanted to believe, but always about peripheral issues regarding the BA / BRAL relationship. To see those two, HS and TR, of
everyone I have ever read on here, in disagreement is deeply deeply worrying. I have to say that TR is absolutely correct. If I were being a bitch, I would say that PitBull is wrong, the actual first attack took place when what was then the BRAL/Manx scheme was closed to new joiners. I said at the time that unless BACC supported us and helped to stop that closure, (the only way would have been to have brought us onto the seniority list ..... and hey, it's all history now) then eventually the BA scheme would also be closed to new joiners, and subsequently closed to all. I award myself the order of the Crystal Ball!!!! You can see how far down this line we (as a pilot community and particularly as BA, BRAL, BACX, BACon) have travelled. The
ONLY way to sort this is to stick together, and of course that means supporting the BARPERs. I only have an interest as a deferred member of the BRAL scheme, but if that goes down the tubes, then a good third of my pension is stuffed.
Whilst that's not the complete end of the world, I don't see why it should have to happen just so Hutchings, Witts, Evans and everyone else up to Walsh can be paid a bigger KPI bonus. I'll go further, I see even less reason why NAPSTERs should be shafted by an even bigger amount, by what in hard cold fact is a rip-off of utterly gargantuan proportions. Yes, maybe some new BARPERs were a little foolish in not checking out the small print in their rush to become a Nigel, but they have been conned as well. A Union is just that, a UNION, and it should involve everyone and everyone's benefits belonging to the same group. In fact, the bigger the pressure group (say, for example, pilots employed by the BA group) then the bigger and even more irresistable the pressure. At the moment Walsh is achieving precisely his objective from the divided and agressive comments between the mixed interest groups presently posting on this thread.
I would suggest that BALPA has just one shot at this. If they (we) lose, then the whole BA Ts and Cs edifice is up for grabs by the management, and those unscrupulous b@stards will go for it at a run. Remember, we are talking about the most profitable airline in the UK, if not presently in the world, and it is utter bullsh1t to suggest they cannot afford what THEY signed up to. If there is the slightest evidence to show they can't, then a few beancounter's and management heads should go rolling down the corridors, but we can all read a basic balance sheet, and the money is there!!!!!!
So, Hand
you really must wake up and smell the coffee, you are not in a silo, you are not an island. I genuinely don't believe your rights should be degraded one iota, but you are far more likely to retain them all if you and your NAPSTER colleagues look just a little further than your own flight decks. I know you don't need to, and that you don't have to, however as I have often bleated in vain, there are ethics and principles involved here, and if that ain't good enough for you, remember that God is on the side of the Big Battalions - are you really SO big that you can not only afford to turn away reinforcements, but perhaps actively create more opposition. The enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that good stuff.
And yes, I'll hoot in support as I drive past the picket lines..............