I still do not understand why our crew costs are going up - it just makes no sense to me. Added to that the biggest problem we face is the staggering loss in fuel hedging. I am appalled at the treatment of our cabin crew and junior pilots on temporary contracts. These issues have to be addressed. Nonetheless, we should not in any way underestimate the pressures on our business and make this work. All I ask from our management is that they are reasonable - if they continue down a route of 'in-yer-face' attacks on all of our futures we will have a disaster.
Norman, the
fundamental problem with any low-cost airlines (FR or EZ: same sh!t different name) is that "treating crews reasonable" does
not fit into the business plan. Which part of "low" and "cost" don't you understand? Salaries are costs and therefore it's a race to the bottom, something I've been warning about for years!
Ask yourself, why should any manager treat current crews "reasonable" if they can hire the next self-funded type rating candidate to replace these expensive but 'reasonable' moaners and reward himself with a fat bonus on top of it all?
You can beat around the bush forever and try to stick your head in the sand with your moderate and kind words and actions, but
nobody will automatically treat you reasonable in this world. You/we (i.e. the crews) have to
fight for it.
Respect is
earned, it's not automatically
given by a nice management because they want to be reasonable.
Of course, now it's one minute to twelve to start earning respect, and in a recession this is next to impossible. That point of no return was passed a few years ago I'm afraid...
