Number Cruncher, I agree with you 98% of the time, but I must take issue with the tenor of your posts on this thread. You and I know each other, and we’ve both been here for a long time.
We’ve been taking a principled stand for our rights as employees since before the industrial action of 99, and the debacle of the 49ers that followed.
For you to characterize the retirement issue as one that is of importance to only 2% of the pilot group is just spin…and diminishes your usual practical and more balanced tone.
Two percent? Lets take your assumption that it only affects 50 pilots this year. That means that 250 pilots in the past five years would have liked the option to continue past 55. Furthermore, that means 250 pilots in the next five years alone would also like the same option. So you’re saying that those 500 pilots are somehow a marginal number, a group whose feelings and concerns are less worthy?
Those 500 pilots…they fought the same principled battles you and I did!
Most of those pilots, who were here in 99, should be captains by now. So I can make the assumption that the angry posts on this and other threads regarding retirement age belong to those who joined since 1999. Nice words boys!
Number Cruncher, it took you and me ten years, as First Officers, to earn our Commands here at Cathay. Have you read how that effort has been denigrated by some of these posters? Most who have only been here a short time, and probably joined since 99?
Do the 500 colleagues I enumerated above deserve their ridicule? Pprune has started to look like face book for adults. Names like Ramjet, Yeager, Mach Number, and so on, are tough sounding names. Number Cruncher do you remember those pilots in 99 who also talked tough at the time, but then forgot their words? Are you now suggesting that suddenly we who have been taking a principled stand all these years no longer matter or count?
Number Cruncher, for those who joined since 99, I ask you: did ASL or Cathay Freighters delay any of their Commands? Did any of them join on B Scale when their mates who joined a short time earlier did not? Did any of them have to endure the agony of taking a stand in 99? Has their pay ever been cut by 25% here at Cathay? Did any of their friends become 49ers?
You cant be suggesting that somehow only their concerns matter…and the rest of us can just sod off? Sure we signed a contract with age 55 retirement on it. Every one who has joined since 1993 also signed a contract they secretly didn't agree with. In both cases, the contracts need to evolve!
Number Cruncher on another post you used the word amoral. I don't agree with that characterization either. I think you got carried away.
ST is right in the sense that we all need to stick together, and work together, to get the best contract for us ALL! My concerns and those of my friends who have been here for 10 to 20 years also matter. Without our support, or the support of all the other pilot sub-groups there will be no unity and no agreement.
So I suggest some of you show more level thinking, and talk to those of us who have been taking a stand for the many years before you joined Cathay. Lose the angry tone. If you don’t understand that, you need to grow up. Your words reflect on us all, and those words are making us all look bad!