COS 08 - This is not about pay
This is not about pay
It's easy to miss the point here. For the company, this is not about a pay deal. This is about solving their long term crew shortage. We simply gave them a viable method to negotiate this in, and they ran with the ball.
Here's a few truths:
They are not favouring A scalers!
Look at it from their perspective. They need pilots, and they need them now. The easiest solution is to extend the retirement age, and yes, it happens to be A scalers that form that group. Many A scalers are C and T, and most will stay on for another 10 years. Maintaining their current pay and even offering a small rise is chicken-feed in order secure such a large group of pilots.
DEFO is another easy and fast way to crew new airplanes.
The sticking point here ( as with other items ) is that they want us to endorse it for them. They can then say that it was ratified by the members, and they are seen to maintain harmonious crew relations.
B scalers are easy to deal with.
The company doesn't need to offer most of you a pay rise of any consequence. Most B scale F/O's are not experienced enough to take commands with other airlines ( you'd be there already otherwise ??) , and those that are will be close to command here, and will get a pay rise then. B scale captains will get a pay rise when they move into C and T.
We simple made a big mistake when we allowed the pay talks to evolve into conditions of service talks.
Last edited by Rice Pudding; 11th August 2007 at 23:42.