COME ON BOYS & GIRLS
I have just spent ages wading through all this lot. As a senior BMI mailnline pilot(as a senior manger described me recently) I would like to add a few points.
The last well meant but misguided post is one of the reasons we are all experiencing eroded conditions and salaries. Yes, we are all part of a team but the marketplace dictates salaries, as with everything else (have you noticed the price of oill!) If you think security officers are that important, be one,. I thought being a pilot was very important that why i chose to be one!
Unlike many of you I was an airport labourer, i had to work for a few pounds a week and teated like absolute **** but not so i could be an airline pilot and be told that security people are just as important. Of course they are important, so is the lavatory cleaner(and I have done that too) but the king pins in an airline operation are the flight deck crew, thats not an opinion, its an obvious fact, if it isnt lets see Bye and Turner operate a service to Palma because I will gladly do their jobs for half the pay and the difference is i could, maybe not as well, ( and so could any of our pilots.)
That smart Irish pratt said PILOTS ARE THE MOST OVERPAID, OVER COSSETED WORKERS IN THE WORLD. This gives you a clue as to where the rot has crept in--- BUDGET AIRLINES. To operate a budget airline everything needs to be at budget costs but I am not a budget pilot and neither are most of my colleagues. Its about time BALPA actually took a stance on actually being a union and made airlines realise that pilots rank with lawyers and,doctors etc not security officers. It would also be good if BALPA could remind them that Lawyers and Doctors (GPs) dont work much after 5 pm and have weekends off, not too many of them are required to night stop in crap hotels or do a six monthly skills check or meet class one medical standards.Not many doctors and lawyers are forced to retire at 60/65.
And finally not many Doctors and lawyers can kill their clients 100-200 at a time.
Budget airlines have brought about a decline in our working conditions (the fatigue of aircrew documet needs a complete re-write as it was written for BEA DC3 pilots), pay , VALUE and RESPECT. I am all for cheap air travel but i dont notice budget mortgages, wifes or children! I dont want to see pilots subsidising air travel because thats what you are all doing--so get real and stand up for the profession--but please dont strike, only as a last alternative because we are in such a unique position you could in a week ruin what has taken a lifetime to build-- please consider a work to rule first.