T5
(1)I hope this doesn't go all the way to Strike action.
(2) And I think there would be little support from outside the pilot community in BA if this were to happen, especially over this issue. And I would have thought there would be little public support as well.
(3) I hope that BALPA and BA can work together to address this.
(4) Just a thought, if BA was trying to set up a similar thing to PL to take advantage of markets in India / China would BALPA be up in arms?!?! I think not!!!!
To answer the above:
(1) We all hope that there will be no need to strike.
(2) Do you think we expect any or need any? We never do, but BALPA are getting better at countering the company spin to the media and city.
(3) They are locked in talks that will culminate in the next couple of weeks. They have both undertaken not to raise the temperature on the issue until these talks conclude.
(4) One difference is that BA pilots have the right to work and live in the proposed centres of operation of PL. Would BALPA be concerned if it were proposed to set up in India or China? You betcha, but we have to deal with today - difficult to fight a non-existant foe.
BALPA fully recognise the need for appropriate costs and scheduling agreements in PL, what they want is for all PL pilots to be on the Master BA Seniority list ie to enable people to move between the various bases and fleets. It may be B757 today, but tomorrow if it is a success it could easily be a B777 fleet. All BA pilots want is for BA flying to be done by BA pilots.