I can only stand and applaud Desk-pilot's extremely accurate grasp of Ryanair's truly desperate emloyment practices. It nonetheless astounds me that a man of Leo's obvious intelligence is unable to recognise the direct relationship between there being no BALPA recognition at Ryanair and the pitiful tale of abuses catalogued above. Ah yes - we should be just grateful that we have jobs rather than worry about minor details like whether we are hungry or not. Indeed, for humble employees to have any ideas at all about what may be best for themselves or the company they work for would represents a terrifying combination of anarchy and ignorance. After all, the ideas and actions of our bosses should of course be beyond question. To quote that great philanthropist Josef Stalin - “Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?”
It is at times like this I recognise more than ever the enormous benefits of having BALPA representation. As long as the only people eligible to join BALPA are human beings then there will always be problems. Nonetheless, I can think of nothing worse than leaving my fate in the hands of a few bounty-hunting managers, whose only ambition is to stagger out the door of Hangar 89, their pockets bulging under the weight of their employees' money.
As can be seen from the enormous number of disappointed applicants to easyJet - we are one of the most sought after companies in Europe to work for. EasyJet will emerge strong from this recession, and due almost entirely to BALPA's efforts to defend its pilots' futures, will actually still be an airline of choice afterwards.