Lets for one moment think what life in an airline would be like if we had no union. We actually do not need to guess to see what would happen.
Lets have a comparison between CX and EK over the last few months. Cx with a Union and EK without.
Ok so here at CX things are not perfect, we have to choose between 2 contracts and possibly give a few weeks salary for the choice. The one thing is that we have a choice, it is not imposed on us, as you have no choice. The AOA has done a lot of work in trying to turn a major rushed stuff up , in to something that we can at least choose on. Not to mention the pressure put on management for the SO's and their BBP. What about the LEP's and their victory over the BBP and the housing.
At EK, they have had their overtime threshold moved from 78 hours to 92 hours (stick time), nothing to vote on, no one can say no..no choice. That is a major pay cut for them!!!
In the last few years we have had a strengthening of the "I'll fire you just becuase " even though the victory did not come from the AOA, it came from some sort of Union.
At EK in the last 2 week 7 pilots have been fired, two of them after they submitted an ASR on something they did wrong. The pilots had no Union rep standing next to them to help them. Here at CX as long as you are in the AOA, you will have legal representation. If the EK pilots crashed in Melbourne, would they have ALPA standing next to them 1 hour after the accident?
Our housing policy has improved vastly during the last 5 years, thanks to the hard work of some AOA volunteers. At EK their housing has just been degraded , they apparently not allowed to buy again and the accommodation now only has to have 3 bedrooms not 4 anymore. Did they have anyone to help them protect their housing? No so once again their management just did what suits them without any pressure from a Union.
Rumors at EK also say that their schooling policy is changing, they are not allowed to get more than 5 days off, not allowed to make use of jumpseats, the list goes on and on.
Now I'll ask you, what do you think your working conditions would be like if we did not have a Union to stop the company from behaving like their brothers at EK.
I know that I'll would rather work for an airline that has a union like the AOA rather than one that doen not!
