The fees for Balpa annoys me a little
I may be wrong on this but you have to pay them a % of your basic pay correct? so on a Ryanair contract that may be say £50 a month as a ball park figure,,, no idea really, just guessing,,,,,, well this is where it should be a bargin for me, I am on a brookfield contract so my basic pay is zero! so there % of that for my membership should be zero a month right!
either way I think paying a % is a con,,,, it should be a flat fee,,, £49 a year of something and £40 to renew if you pay by direct debit,, id go for that,, maybe???
other argument I have is aparently you need a certain % of pilots to join to get automatic reconginion correct,,, so if I join now and no one else does,,, I am just wasteing my fee right as they will do jack all until they have enough members,,,,, there does not seem to be any campain to get us pilots to join,, yea you could say its in our interest to do so,,, but so is cutting out some red meat from my diet,,, I know its good for me but its never gonna happen unless my doctor spoon feeds me carrots every day!.
Looking at the way FR management act towards most things, I really dont think they will give BALPA the time of day for a long while yet,,, why should they when aviation is on its arse most of the world over,,,, in a strong market with everyone making money there is other places to go (greener grass and all that ) at the min theres not much on offer so they know they can take the piss a little.
just my thoughts,,,, ill sit back now and wait for people to mentaly stone me to death now :-)