Originally Posted by On_the_bug
There will be no strikes - just look what has been happening at easy. They talk tough then settle for a mediocre pay rise with no agreements on rostering/pensions/lifestyle or anything else whilst their bosses continue to stuff their pockets full of cash.
At easy in particular the CC are very gullible, believing that they can obtain lifestyle improvements at a time when the company are cancelling 100s of flights due to lack of crew.
I do not know if 'On_the_bug' is actually an easyJet pilot but I suspect not. If he is, then I am dissapointed at his lack of grasp of what has gone on. Like many people who know little of the real situation he has got his facts wrong. The 'mediocre pay rise' was actually 6% this year (backdated) and 4% next year plus the restoration of the FOs loyalty bonus. As far as I know that is the best deal that any airline has been awarded this year and indeed significantly better than nearly all other sectors of UK industry.
The decision not to tie the current pay deal to rostering agreements was a deliberate one that had virtually total support from the BALPA members within the company. The reason for this was to avoid protracted and messy negotiations where we ended up selling roster deals for cash. The view taken by the majority of people was that you should keep the 2 sets of negotiations separate, and I for one am delighted that is what happened.
Having now won the best deal in the UK airline industry this year, the second and probably more important issue is now being addressed - rostering. The legendary 5/2-5/4 system is universally unpopular and is being debated as we speak. The CC have placed before the company a number of demands which, if not met, will result in an escalation of the dispute. There is a widespread recognition among the pilots that the summer battle is lost and due to leave etc it may be another year before we have a sensible rostering agreement in place. I am one of those who think that trials will have to take place at different bases before introducing new arrangements and I also think that we may end up with slightly different agreements for different bases. The 'one size fits all' approach is increasingly unworkable and I think that will be addressed. The unwise voices crying for strike action now have fortunately been held at bay while more rational individuals actually sort out a workable solution.
Finally, 'On_the_bug' has stated that the CC are gullible. I am not on the CC and have not day-to-day contact with them, but they have done magnificently given an almost impossible group of people they had to deal with. Like I said, this will take about a year to have a decent deal in place and we should not kid ourselves otherwise. The reason we have flights being cancelled is our managers failed to recruit the right number of people at the right time. The error was then compounded by failing to train the requisite number of training captains to train the massive backlog of new entrants. Not to worry - we are now recruiting direct-entry training captains despite having delayed the training courses of our homegrown trainers. I hope that our CEO will be taking a great interest in what has happened and act accordingly - it was all totally avoidable.
Nonetheless, I am confident that when the summer shambles abates, we will have a long term agreement in place to change the current rostering deal. Our CC have done and continue to do a great job in difficult circumstances.