Some interesting things to consider....
Having had a pension briefing and read lots on it, it seems there is a problem, that i do believe. Something needs to be done, that I do believe also. But exactly how have we gotten into this mess? The "Plan" they are coming up with now, why should we trust it to be what we should vote for? Surely if they are that clever to have a all singing dancing plan that will save the company, make us loads of cash and keep the good NATS ship a float then we wouldnt be here in the first place and they would have done it years ago. Why did they take a pension holiday, why did they let 120million be skimmed off the top of the pension when we were broke? So im a bit synical voting for something that they cant actually garuntee will work, or wont need more adding to it later on...such as getting rid of loads of staff(i.e sell NSL).
Now lets think about some of the probelms of why we need to cap pay for pensions....lets see its because the more they pay, the more they have to pay into the scheme, right now lets see another way of saving some of that cash...oh yeah less people working for the company on less money. Hmmmm now why is it then that we are getting rid of Engineers, we are reducing assistant numbers, Units are working with less and less fully valid controllers....but hey CTC keeps on recruiting, more and more new jobs posted on NATS net each day, all of them on High salaries, anyone been there latley? Seen any work going on? The hardest working person in CTC is the woman in the Coffee shop, because thats all everyone seems to do! Its busier in there than the one in southampton City center.
Now dont get me wrong, Im more than aware there are plenty of useful people working at CTC, that we did need to change post PPP and have some new Departments and jobs in order to develop our markets abroad and also the technology for the future, but it seems some departments there exist purely to generate work for some other department who then report to another department and then back to the start again, so they dont actually ever generate anything. HR...NIBS, isnt that supposed to replace much of the work that was done by HR? so surely the HR department should be reducing not increasing in size? Again I know there are some very hard work HR people, and are essential for the running of NATS, its not just about ATCO's and radar screens, yes we do need some clever high paid managers to think of new ideas, to give direction to the company, yes we do need to invest in new technology, yes we do have to research new safety procedures, but NSL units have to pay for CTC, so when they are bidding for contracts they have to cost this in, the more CTC costs the less margin they have to bid, if CTC costs were lower or they actually made some money themselves then passing on pension costs into the contract would be easier.
Lets look at the offer the company have made...dont forget why would they come and offer the best deal for us straight up? when we have pay negotations do they always say yeah here you go have 20%? No they come in with a low offer and we push them up, so maybe they have some more to give yet. They are not stupid either, they must have other options at hand no businessperson alive doesnt have an alternative plan.
What I say they need to show to the staff is that rather than just looking for us to bail them out, they need to show that they are doing something also to save the pennies, not keep telling us how another much needed highly paid person from some other industry has been given a job with a title that we dont really know what they do that has just put a further drain on the pension pot.
We are the Best ASP in the world, we got that accolade years before PPP and have had it since it, and that was before all the CTC/heathrow house brigade came into existance, like I said before the world has changed and I dont disagree that some of the new jobs were needed in order to ensure that NATS continues to be the best, but I think its gotten out of control now, some people at CTC i have spoken to have never been to an Air traffic Unit ever, even with swanwick just down the road, many dont even know basics of what ATC is, and yet they work for NATS, get a NATS pension that has been made profitable until now by the money that ATCOS/ATSA/ATCE have paid into.
Have a spring clean out of the dross that we are employing, merge posts and jobs that seem to me that people dont actually have enough work to do, explain why people at CTC get business rate milage when they go on a business trip, yet ATCO's getting running cost rate, or have to use a pool car, save some money there and then I might start to think about voting yes to do my bit to help the company out of this mire.
When I start to feel valued by the management, when I feel they are doing their bit also to make this the Best ASP, when I feel they are not just taking the piss, when they realise that ATC is nothing without ATCO's and the other essential support staff then and only then will i consider a yes vote.
They have to remember they have broke our trust with this deal, our pension was untouchable, they have to show some effort as to why we forgive them and going to muck in and help...just remember one thing...Paul Barrons last job was to close down and sell of the assests of a company. Our biggest asset is the pension scheme its worth more than the comany is.