Well, i must say for all your (collective) purported intelligance, you guys really don't seem to get it.
Firstly, for all your uneducated hypothesising, you have no idea as to who i am. The very fact that after 1 post, you pigeon-hole me into the sphere of QF management, says more about the people who post on this forum, and their siege mentality, than anything else. So be it. However, i read commentary (as disjointed as it is) from no more than 20 regular posters on this forum, all of whom inevitably beat the drums of war over EBA 8. At last count, there were over 1400 LAMEs employed by QF. The noisy musings of 1.5% of the licensed population hardly equates to an overwhelming mandate.
The theme of your replies were fairly common. Your lack of a decent wage rise in the past decade, your working of night shift, weekends & public holidays, working with chemicals, and your inherent ability to keep state of the machines in the air under immense duress. If indeed these are issues worth addressing, then why weren't they tabled for negotiation in this latest EBA's log of claims ? At the risk of rattling the hornets nest, no one other than yourselves is interested in the 'sacrifice' you divest in the pursuit of your career. The irony is that some of you notated the answers to your dilemmas by saying John Holland & Virgin would be viable alternatives. The fact is it is a free market, and if you are unhappy with your current employment conditions at QF, then feel free to move to another company on the 'superior' conditions. I'd suggest that none of you will, in part because some of you here are just 'trolls', and in part because the rest of you just want to whine like a 'roller' at idle, telling anyone who will listen how aggrieved you are.
Here is a piece of free advice. The QF LAMEs blinked, and the company won in the battle of EBA 8. You allowed a symbolic meeting with G Dixon, and a subsequent 'in principle' agreement to cloud your judgement, inflating your egos because you had an audience with the CEO. You fell for the oldest trick in the book, and allowed the intimidation of the CEO to fool you into thinking that you walked away the winners, when in fact you walked away with less than what you came for. It is clear that the company does not rate you with the same volume of importance that you guys rate yourselves. And whose fault is that ? May i suggest for EBA 9 that you employ some serious corporate negotiaters, who can see the woods from the trees, and will always play to your strengths.
Seriously, look at the facts. 14 months of negotiation, and this is the result. And you, as a group (however small it may be), have the audacity to snare at the company's 'contemptuous' attitude. I think a good, long, hard collective look in the mirror is called for. And FYI, i will guarantee the vote is carried in the positive by the ALAEA membership. It was an outcome never destined for failure.
Looking forward to the regurgitated, infantile barbs...