The Virgin Strike Thread II

[scoobydooo]

Take point one. You tell someone that Virgin crew are striking, they ask 'what were they offered', and when they hear 4.8% they may be a little taken aback by that headline number. Probably twice or more what they managed this year

VS_LHR, I totally agree, I was out for dinner with some friends the other day and they asked, "what's this about Virgin going on strike, we always thought you guys loved the company ?". That is how Virgin was and still is perceived in some publics eyes. I told them 4.8%, as you say, that is a good payrise. I then told them what our basic was and chins nearly hit the floor.

I explained the issues as SITYR and 016 has regarding crew down and the impact this has on them the flying customer. Obviously one response was but what about all the lovely places you get to go ? I had to agree I have been to some lovely places but explained that unfortunately after a period seeing lovely places doesn't pay the bills. So then they said, what about other airlines what do they make ? So BA came up (so as has been said they got loads o' money - in Harry Enfield voice) but we discussed what other airlines do with duty pay per hour you are away from base. We discussed record sickness this Christmas (as I am hearing), a sure sign of morale amongst the crew, it was record sickness last year and now even higher this year. We discussed the future and what changes we expect might happen this year. I firmly believe Virgin will join other airlines in putting the squeeze on and trying to get us operating as close to minimum rest as possible downroute in order to try and squeeze more out of us, probably the only reason they have not managed it so far is because the pilots more than likely refuse to do it which protects us, but I can see that being the next focus.

The public love the product and I love delivering the product when I have the correct tools for it, take all the tools out of my toolbox (crew) then I will still try and do what I can but the job might not be as professional compared to if I had all my tools.

Finally it seems my voice/disappointment/reaction to Dickies letter a few days back was not on its tod, the news sure knows how to paint a picture.