Don't come...yet.
I joined shortly after the ban and I have been on the line for a while. Life has been quite strange. Things started off fairly well, as I was very busy initially and most people I met were great. My girlfriend left only weeks after we got here, not because of the dispute and the Ban issues, but because she was bored here. She has a good job back home and I am now going to commute. Then, things got strange and I received a bunch of phone calls from some pretty angry people, but this has stopped. When I show up for a flight, it is always the same question: Hi, how long have you been here? I never know what the response will be. I either get the cold shoulder treatment or some of those guys are great and do not mention anything. Who is genuine and who is not? The reason that I am writing on this forum is to tell you of my experience with a CX crew manager. After I received the phone calls, I called someone in the office about it. I was asked to come in for a chat. As soon as I came into the office, I was asked if I had any name to report. Did anyone made you feel unwelcome on any flight? Did you recognize any voice? At some point, he made the comment that he could not wait to catch one of those "bastards" making the calls. He also suggested that I change my phone number and that I could claim for the fees involved. After about ten minutes of that, where he seemed very much concerned for my well being and asking me questions about my social life, our conversation became very weird. I asked him if there was any possibility to go on a three or four month unpaid leave. He suddenly became very defensive and told me that only the DFO could approve such an unusual request. He said: “Because you are still within your first year probation, I STRONGLY suggest that you go back home and re-think about this request. We will do our best to make life here as good as it possibly can be, but we are very short staff right now. If you still want to go ahead with your request, you will have to write a letter to the DFO”
When he said: I STRONGLY suggest that… it was very obvious what he meant. Don’t rock the boat.
There is not a single day that goes by without I thinking that I should have waited until this dispute was all over. If I were you, I would find a way to delay and stall as much as possible. I think that this will be a great place to work at some point, but it is a tough go right now. The Union will not last for long and some of the good guys I flew with told me that the members are not going to pay for a long time. Be wise in what you say and be patient.