Those of you unfamiliar with the term, it is sometimes refered to as "Laying in the boot". Best performed when an opponent is at a disadvantage, and usually administered by spineless and unscrupolous individuals only when they are assured that the opponent is unlikely to fight back!
The standing joke that has been the REX EBA negotiation will soon be coming to it's finale. Sadly the integrity of one side of the "negotiation" falls far short of deserving the professionalism and hard work of the other!
Reading between the lines of the latest AFAP memo to REX pilots, it seems that REX management, along with the board are about to lower the boom on this whole fiasco. Popular thinking has it that far from seeking to have the REX pilots terms and Conditions (as substandard as they are) remaining static, a situation that many believed was the agenda all along, REX may now seek to revise down the "offer" (curious as there has been no offer) to something less than what REX pilots are alredy on!!! As the now expired EBA barely kept place with the cost of living (unless of course you are a management stooge living in a regional centre), then any variation down of the current Terms and Conditions will equate to a pay cut. It is also widely mooted that any form of back-pay to July 08 is something the Company will also not entertain.
So what have the REXPC got to show for all their hard work? Unfortunately, it is what I have predicted all along. I have watched from the sidelines as the hardworking (pro-bono I might add) and well intentioned representatives have given their all to find common ground and an equitable solution. What have the company done to date? What they always have done. Sweet F#@K All! And why should they. All they had to do was delay, and every now and then make encourageing noises, just enough to keep the pilots on the hook. But at the end of the day, they had absolutely no intention of ever negotiating in good faith.
But don't believe me boys and girls. When the "Slipper goes in", you'll know what I mean.
