Alpine57
For those of you who don't follow other threads, A-57 is a regular contributor on CC EBA thread. Common wisdom there is that their union FAAA executive all have numbers as part of their pseudonyms, so it may be that A-57 is worth paying attention to.
But remember we are not CC and it takes a lot longer to train some one to replace us that CC (no offence A-57, just a lot of legalities on top of tech training).
I think he/she's right in that the company won't budge from 3%, but I also think there's more to this than an extra 2%.
It's well known that management think of us as an outrageously expensive part of the business. So why not provoke a blue, lock us all out, have the eba terminated and only ask back the ones they want and on their terms....... in the interim.
Then in the mid to long term sell each part of eng off. We might be Smith's Crisps Aero Engineering Ltd Victoria, or Heinz Air Services QLD etc.
No leave for QF to worry about, no uniforms, super, sickies, nothing except a single monthly/weekly/whatever payment to a contract agency.
The downside of this to QF is no company loyalty (if there's any of that left), just the bare legal minimum of on the job effort. MEL's galore, crappy interiors, delays, pissed off pax, deserting pax and finally no pax.
This could turn out to be the most expensive 2% since Adam gave up a rib. But as Adam also found out, it will make life very interesting and definitely unpredictable.
Enjoy the holidays and celebrate new year as if it's your last, because 2008 will not start with a wimper.