Just a couple of points:
I have heard the comparison between Ireland and Denmark a few times now. Apparently Denmark is more expensive than Paddyland. That would imply that if EI opened a base in Copenhagen they would offer direct entry pilots a better salary, better working conditions and a more attractive pension than that which is currently applicable to the Dublin and Cork pilots so that the package was appropriate to the local market.
ANYONE WITH HALF A BRAIN CAN SEE THAT THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. THE LOCAL MARKET EXPLANATION FOR OFFERING LOWER T'S & C'S IN BELFAST IS NOTHING MORE THAN A COVER FOR THE MANAGEMENTS REAL AGENDA WHICH IS TO REDUCE THE COST OF EMPLOYING BOTH CURRENT AND FUTURE PILOTS.
No one can dispute that this may make good business sense FROM AN ACCOUNTING POINT OF VIEW, but it does not in any way mean that employees are duty bound to accept it and say nothing.
Regardless of your profession, if your bosses told you are required to take a 15% pay cut, not because the company is against the wall but so that they can increase profits and therefore receive bigger bonuses themselves, you would not accept it. You be a COMPLETE FOOL if you did.
For the past year EI have been asking their pilots to do exactly that. The Belfast issue is the latest addition to the current attack on existing employees, where management, after failing to coerce the pilot body into accepting their plans to dramatically reduce their TAKE HOME PAY, dramatically reduce their QUALITY OF LIFE, while subsidising the huge bonuses that are to be paid to the top level management after the event, have decided to GO AHEAD AND IMPLEMENT THEIR PLANS REGARDLESS OF WHETHER THEY HAVE BEEN AGREED OR NOT. AND YOU EXPECT THE PILOTS TO SIT BACK AND PONDER THE BUSINESS ACUMEN INVOLVED IN THE DECISION?? You really must be mad. Or just stupid. Or perhaps both.
I say bravo to EI pilots. Not just because I am sick to the back teeth of what is happening to the aviation industry, but because i would not find it acceptable in ANY INDUSTRY. This particular dispute is different only because the general public perceive all pilots as those who universally receive six figure salaries for a half weeks work.
There was outcry at the Irish Ferries fiasco. There was anger at Bank of Irelands plans. FUNDAMENTALY, THIS IS NO DIFFERENT.