Originally Posted by
LonBA
Tis true, folks at waterside (management and staff alike) aren't too concerned about a strike. Agreement with the Trustee was seen as the bigger issue, as any strike post-agreement, (and the prospect of regulators stepping in), has more downside risk to the pilots than the company. Plus it seems highly unlikely the company would have made this announcement without some expectation that the unions would agree to it with only minor changes (at most).
Well my mole at Waterside tells me the vast majority of staff there don't really understand the implications of the proposals or of the strength of feeling amongst the pilot community. No change from the usual form there then.
I'm sure the company believe that some of the unions are on-side, the GMB being a prime example. Unfortunately for them you can have as many bean-counters, pen-pushers, latte-sippers and wildcat strikers as you like on-side, until they can fly a plane the company is going nowhere without the pilots.
Originally Posted by great expectations
Management think we wont strike, I got that straight from the horse's mouth today. They are feeling very complacent and enjoying playing with people's lives. Honestly, word for word thats what I heard today
I don't doubt it for a minute. The senior management are completely out of touch with the feelings of the pilot community. I recently flew with a buddy of Liquids,Creams and Gels who told me that we ought to go and talk to Liquid as he doesn't get any feedback from the community. Only he and his peers went to talk to Liquid as old pals, and he was quite ambivalent about the proposals with only a couple of years to go and a desire to work to 58. Thats the feedback Liquid is getting. Of course 90+% of the community aren't prepared to waste our time hanging around in Compass to talk to Liquid, especially as we know he doesn't listen anyway, so he has no idea than when I go to work the burning topic of conversation amongst almost everybody I fly with is the great pensions robbery. I don't even raise the topic, I just wait for the angry man in the seat next to me to mention it, and mention it they have done, without fail, every trip for the last 3 months. So lets let Liquids, Creams and Gels (and LonBA) continue with their heads in the sand. It just means they are oblivious to the long run-up we are taking to kick them up the ar se.