From cabincrew.com, BRILLIANT! sums it up perfectly i feel
As an old timer FSM, i've read all of the comments posted on here and there are some really valued points and obviously very strong opinion which shows the loyalty that most of you (us) show to Virgin. I must say that what LM, Steve R and that new plonker who has only been in the company 5 minutes from Britannia, (latest post on ifly, I can't remember his name for the moment) seems to be all about looking after our customers from now, basically stuff the crew, they've made their decision and now we have no further interest in them at all!! How about expressing their sadness that over 70% of voting members are so unhappy with their pay and conditions that they have decided to take this action and maybe trying to get back round the negotiating table to try to clinch a new deal?
Those of us who have been here over 20 years and have stuck by the airline through 2 gulf wars, 9/11, 7/7 and plenty of other situations that have caused major problems for the airline, sureley deserve more than just being told that the airlines major concern is now the customers and basically the crew who want to strike can get on with whilst Virgin runs an almost full schedule regardless!!
And what's all this about thanking everyone who has volunteered to help out??? How about when we go 3 and 4 crew down and work into discretion to 'help out'??? Overtime at £5 per hour, for goodness sake, it doesn't even buy a cup of coffee and a cake in London! Let's see how many flights have to go crew down over the xmas and new year periods, how many of us will have to work with minimum crew and still offer a fantastic service onboard and still be assessed by FSM's/CSS's to ensure the standard of your work is nothing less than exemplary!!
And of course don't forget, that when we take leave, we only get 2 (if we're lucky) buffer days to add on, where as office staff get two week-end's on either side of their leave plus all bank holidays where applicable!
And by the way, SEP instructors are on £28500 pa, even those who have only been in the company a few years. That's more than FSM's would get if the new pay deal had come into effect. And they are not actually management, they are trainers, FSM's CSS's are supposed to be managers and they earn less than the trainers, how can that be justified?
And all the benefits that have been taken away from the crew? Only one car park pass for newer crew, one request per month that is really hard to actually get for most of us, we could work both Xmas and New Year for two or three years consequentively, crew rest taken off the A340 for quite a long time so flights to DEL/BOM, sometimes nearly 10 hours without a single break, the list goes on and on. And then the company say we're being unfair by asking for a salary equal to other airlines?
All the benefits that we once had in this company when it was smaller, have now gone, most of us have a story to tell of something that is quite outragious and it has gone on for long enough and many of us who have been in the company for a long time are now just fed up of things being taken away and getting so little in return. No payment for 4 days SEP training in the office and not even a day off afterwards, many of us have to fly the very next day. SEP has become a total nightmare for most people and yet if we don't pass, we lose our jobs it's as simple as that! We have to be Dr's/nurses, Police, Firefighters, waiting staff, safety officers, security 'bods', sales people (DF) as well of course as being perfect ambassadors for the company and offering a world class service that rivals some of the best companies in the world! For goodness sake, do we really not deserve to earn a salary that is rewarding!!
We all work bloomin' hard and the vast majority of crew really do give 100% and are so loyal to the company and we really can't do more than we already do!! The company need to start recognising the crew that give so much to the company, remember the restraints that so many of us have dealt with, the medical emergencies, the sep related incidents onboard, the long horrendous delays etc etc etc
Are we really asking for so much? If the company manage to operate a near perfect schedule over the strikes, then things will only get worse in the future, disciplinaries will become more frequent, more benefits will be taken away as cost cutting measures and foget any chance of renegotiating a salary review in the next 4 to 5 years as the company will say they cannot afford it as a result of the strikes we instigated!