Well, I've finally got round to posting after lurking for a little while. Just to make things clear, I'm a CSS, worked for Virgin for 7 years and was still undecided about what to do with regards to the strike until I got that letter from SRB. I thought it was incredibly patronising thoughtless and lazy. His argument that we should not compare ourselves with BA because we are "a smaller, friendlier company" is ridiculous. Yes, 5 years ago I would have completely agreed and accepted the pay wasn't that high because I was made to feel like I was part of something special but the company is so much bigger now. Who can honestly say that their CSM/CPM could pick them out of a line up? Where was the Christmas card, let alone party or present one would get working for a "small, friendly company"-come to think of it, did anyone even say thank you for working Christmas????
I did know the salary when I joined but I also expected it to increase at at least the same rate of cost of living! My mortgage payments have increase significantly more than my salary- if, when Dickie says that " more pay... may be critical for your lifestyle", was he aware that in this instance " lifestyle" constitutes food, heat and petrol-not that glamorous!
The fact is Virgin is not the company it once was, a lot of the fun and uniquness has gone and we are now a big business, our salary should reflect this. Just to pre empt any "if you don't like it, leave" comments, I absolutely adore my job, I have devoted seven years of my life to it and I have shown the company a lot of loyalty, I shouldn't HAVE to leave.
The problem is, if we back down now and do not follow through with our threats to strike, we will never be taken seriously again. I'm sure all crew are already aware of how they are stereotyped by management etc (anyone else heard the term "nodding dogs")? We have to stay firm now. We are not asking for much, just a fairer distribution of monies at Virgin. Crew make up 55% of the workforce but recieve just 3% of the pay.
By the way, this is just gossip so no one sue, I heard that two of our directors may have worked for Ansett and were partly responsible for their crew striking and the company's ultimate demise! Can anyone confirm/deny this?