Ladies and Gentlemen of the air, the summer season is upon us and, regular as clockwork, the unsavoury minions of IALPA, the Aer Lingus pilot's union and BLAPA, the mutual masturbation society of the Atlantic Barons of Hounslow, are rattling their sabres yet again. In case of the former, I have such a tale to tell as to beggar belief. A story of such consummate stupidity, that even to a seasoned connoisseur of hubris such as myself, it is surely one for the history books. More on that at another time.
In case of the latter, BLAPA, excuse me, BALPA, has rode into town on a white charger, baiting their hooks this time with "dignity and respect". Apparently, we at Ryanair have none, and they claim to deliver it, in exchange for the requisite £1000 fee, of course. What's got 'em all lathered into a frenzy this time is that after years of taking money from Ryanair pilots and doing nothing in return, or in other words, standard operating procedure for all NON-British Airways pilots, they've been persuaded to whip the troops into a frenzy of discontent just as the major money making season comes into view, during the greatest recession to strike our industry since Orville and Wilbur went three-axial at Kitty Hawk.
The good people of BLAPA have even published, in recent days, a terrific five-page extravaganza of what they claim to be able to deliver in return for all those membership fees. It is so riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies it might well have been produced by the North Koreans, but certain aspects on page 4 can’t go without comment.
This petition is totally confidential and throughout the
recognition process absolutely no personal details will
be shared with Ryanair
This is demonstrably untrue. In BLAPA’s last of many failures when endeavouring to tell British Airways management what they could and couldn’t do to be competitive with Open Skies, previously known as
Project Lauren, the ensuing court case in the High Court of England, which found in favour of BA, all names and details of individual BLAPA members were handed over to the judge for consideration and as such are on the public record.
If you feel compelled to join the BLAPA circus, then by all means! Personally, I’d prefer a filthy weekend in Vegas for my £1000 BLAPA subscription, but don’t for a moment believe their lies that you’re protected and anonymous. You aren’t.
And so, ladies and gentlemen, a challenge. I ask for experience based contributions demonstrating the relative merits of BLAPA/IALPA membership, and as their counterpoint, divergent opinion demonstrating their overwhelming destructive potential, either intentional or as is too often observed, incidental.
Over to you.