Powdermonkey,
I love my base. It was first choice, 20 min from my home, family, friends. Great colleagues, all new a/c, great routes....etc. It will close if Balpa are recognised.
I love my job for 1000 and 1 reasons. I will probably loose my job if Balpa are recognised, if not then i will loose my allowances, my 5/4 roster, my leave allowance will be altered, if im not sacked then ill be shipped off to another base (see above why i dont want that).
Those are just two aspects of how Balpa will negatively affect staff. Not forgetting, the cabin crew, engineers, ground staff....etc that will loose their jobs. At my base thats around (incl pilots) 400 staff at least. At one base.
The only power Balpa would have is to "negotiate" with Ryanair, who have already stated they will not negotiate. So the next step Balpa could ask us all to strike...and then the same thing happens - base closures, redundancies....etc.
The fact is Balpa have just said "Join us and we will change something somewhere at sometime, possibly, maybe"
They have not said what they can and will do. I know that "balpa is you" as people keep saying - but those people who have organised this campaign have not said what we are exactly fighting for. Dignity and respect - i have plenty of that. That means nothing to me in terms of what Balpa could achieve. If Balpa could say to us "we will achieve XXXXX" then they would have a few more supporters. However all we see daily is Balpa failing to achieve anything. Just ask Dan-air pilots, BA guys...etc The unemployment list seems to be growing.
Neither I nor any of my fellow pilots at my base want to be in that queue.
The sooner Balpa is rejected the better.