Nightstop - your unfortunate reply would indicate you believe Trainers' salaries are being paid for by other pilot groups and that the only beneficiaries of BALPA's efforts are Trainers. I would have hoped you had sufficient knowledge to realise how totally incorrect such an assertion is - apparently not. Indeed, you have failed to understand the argument. For the first time in our history that I am aware of, the possiblity of 'temporary appointments' appeared. It was brought in without consultation and imposed by our since-departed Chief Training Captain in order to enhance his own bonus at the expense of his own Training Captains. Had this gone unchallenged, it would inevitably have led to the 'temporary commands' for the summer which other airlines employ. Quite rightly, BALPA saw the dangers and acted to defeat this totally unacceptable turn of events. A further advantage of this is to preserve a career structure which enables all pilots to reach the highest ranks and maintain that position on reaching it. That is not just an advantage for Trainers - it is vital for all staff as today's CTC cadets are tomorrow's Training Captains.
Regarding your equally ill-informed assertion that Trainers 'are sittting in the RHS doing nothing for their money', you may be interested to know that in the next 31 days I am rostered to fly 52 sectors of which 46 are training duties. Undoubtedly there was a 3-month period when consolidation went on (quite useful if you chose to take advantage of it), but that is not the case at the moment. If the management had had their way the new Trainers would have been demoted in October - and by the same token numerous new captains would have been demoted too. Dare I say it - BALPA actually acted in everyone's interests and not just those of a few. Never in the history of easyJet has so much rubbish been spouted to so many by so few...
Santa's Little Helper - The issue of BALPA is directly relevant to the current argument. Why are these 'poor souls' in the holding pool instead of being instantly whisked into 900 hours a year of seriously hard work as was the case in years gone by? The reason is that people are not leaving because we have become an employer of choice. Why is that? The reason is that when Ray Webster was still CEO, he tried to award himself and a few of his mates massive bonuses and at the same time award an effective pay cut to both pilots and cabin crew. Union membership soared and in the end a great victory was won when the new CEO, Andy Harrison, wisely saw the absolute certainty of a strike. Pilots therefore were awarded 10% over 2 years which was among the best deals on offer at the time in the industry. In short, for the first time in easyJet's history a critical mass of pilots gathered together to fight for their share of easyJet's success. More recently, however, we have taken on over 400 pilots last year - a significant percentage of whom have not seen the willingness of our managers to look them straight in the eye and tell them they are the low cost side of low cost! Consequently membership has waned, and slowly but surely we are moving back to our previous position of being taken advantage of by unscrupulous individuals. Substantial battles loom in the form of European contracts and the only credible answer is a united pilot workforce working together to negotiate the best deal rather than see a totally disadvantageous settlement imposed upon us. There is none so blind as thems that will not see - but if we have any eyesight still functioning we should have a look at what a low cost airline like Ryanair without BALPA representation is currently offering its Captains. Without BALPA that film will be coming to a cinema near you shortly..........