"My only question is wont the VCA staff go first? I thought that this was why this agreement was put in place to protect the permanent ATSA staff."
No they will not be going, because, (according to our last Branch Chairperson)due to a change in employment law, apparently they now have equal rights of job tenure as the rest of us. PCS sold this VCA agreement to the Heathrow ATSAs on the sole and specific point that, when push came to shove, the VCAs would be leaving first. This is now patently not the case - the VCAs are based in the Heathrow Simulator, or have now achieved trainee LPO ATSA4 positions. There is no talk of them being pushed out to make way for any future reductions in the permanent workforce of 15 ATSA2s - and there will be a reduction of 15 down to 11 in June09 for starters. If there's any vacancies in the Sim, then we can expect to be relocated to there, but if there's not, then the VCAs won't be leaving to make way for us.
If you have VCAs at your place of work, I suggest you talk to your PCS Reps to get their view on this matter.