If those nasty BA boys lose their current fight, then every pilot in the UK can look forward to a very bleak horizon. The issue at stake is of such fundamental importance, that the US pilots unions are now aligning themselves with BALPA and arranging joint strategies.
For such unprecedented cooperation to occur, all of the protagonists must have decided that the threat to our profession is so severe, that standing together on a global scale is the only way that we can effectively withstand rapacious and opportunistic corporations such as BA, AA and all the others who will doubtlessly take a leaf from their books.
Forty years ago, the seamen of the British merchant marine did not see the threat that outsourcing posed to them and their careers. Now they barely exist, their jobs being done by legions of Phillipinos and Indonesians on chicken feed wages and workhouse terms and conditions.
Today we are on the precipice of such magnitude that the transition from Airline Captain to blue collar machine operative will be swift and sure, unless we face up to the threat RIGHT NOW. The Americans have come to us having realised all too late for some that this is a very real possibility. They have offered their expertise, experience, and resources to fight by our sides.
I acknowledge that the BA Longhaul Pilots Association is often seen as too parochial, but they are dealing with some very weighty issues of fundamental importance to us all. BA has 3000 pilots in BALPA, all paying their 1% of their
pots of gold.
BALPA are ensuring that we ALL have a future. Please cut them some slack.
