Gentlemen, i apologize for interfering with your arguments, but since i too work for FR, i thought you might (just might) be interested how I, a CC, feel about all this BALPA madness.
The main reason why I joined FR was the chance of coming home every night. I know for a fact i could never do long haul, and I joined FR over easyJet for reasons that i'm sure won't interest you.
The way I (and many of my colleagues) see it, if BALPA gets it's vicious way with Ryanair, my job is gone, down the drain, kaput... I'm sorry if i come across as selfish, but in this day an age you got to look after No1. Yes it says in my contract that i may be tranferred somewhere else should the company ask me, but i refuse to transfer to another base and start all over again because of BALPA.
We just bought a house, settled in, close to the base but far enough to escape "work" when having time off. The mortgage is not "peanuts" and we need to stay in our UK base. Believe you me, we can't afford renting in the likes of Skavsta AND paying the mortgage.
Added to that, if the management decides at some point to relocate all UK based a/c and crews somewhere else because of BALPA's irritating way of doing things, it will ruin relationships, lifestyles, people will have to leave loved ones behind, pets, ill parents, you name it. All that for what, so you guys put more money in BALPA's pockets? Don't you rather support your wives/children/partners lifestyle than BALPA's??
Now before you jump and say "well you knew about the implications with this job when you signed the contract", yes i did, i knew that my chosen base will be where i'll be working from for the rest of my FR career and maybe get sent somewhere else for short periods if they are short of crew.
Well tell you what, in 3 years and a half i have never, EVER been asked to operate from another base, nor did it randomly appeared on my roster. They ask crew to volunteer for that and always get the ones who wish to go.
But to be forced to start all over again because of the so called "union for pilots" BALPA? No way Jose.
Speaking to the very new F/O's in my base, some of them are members of BALPA just for the legal protection. Myself and my partner both have aircrew legal insurance and we pay between £7 and £12 a month, not thousands of pounds from our wages like BALPA is asking you to pay (i can give this company's web and e-mail address via pm should any of you wish to find out more) . And where are is the "knight in shining armour" BALPA when you need them? Fannying about that's where, meanwhile your life is stressfull and you feel more and more depressed should you need to hear about your "unfair dismissal" case or whatever else that has to do with your job/employer.
Gentlemen, i really, REALLY don't want to lose my job over this BALPA issue. And if you carry on glorifying the unionisation, i will.
Say NO to BALPA!
Rgds,
ATS