"We have negotiated with the Company to save at least 19 pilot jobs
in addition to re-opening a further voluntary severance scheme. So
from the Company figure of 156 pilots, (137 FTE), the number of
redundancies has dropped to 137 pilots, (120 FTE), and hopefully
will drop further with VS take up. We have also negotiated to
reduce the number of demoted Captains from 62 down to 20."
So let me get this right? Of the 137 redundancies the huge majority will be FOs I expect...? So, BALPA have made sure that the captains stay as captains but will ALL be RHS trained. Hence, the company will now be paying around 117 people to fly as FOs on captain pay. Good to see BALPA help the company cut costs...as long as it's not the cost of the captains, of course.
As for lemmings - here we are having our beef casserole taken off us in the interest of saving the aircraft from certain disaster at the hands of pilots and yet 'the pilot community' is happy to see despicable schemes such as Easy are now providing.
Let's think about this for a minute...young cadet gets loaded and loaded with debt. Crap life, no end in sight, no prospects, no help from anyone...'screw you I'm alright, Jack' attitude from his/her 'colleagues' etc etc. How far are we going to let it go before some disenchanted, hopeless and screwed up newbie has enough of the crap and does something stupid thinking they've got nothing to look forward to. Ah well, as long as they don't have a yoghurt it will all be fine.
BALPA are useless in stopping the race to the bottom. That fact unfortunately is unavoidable. They look after themselves i.e. senior captains and TCs. It's like chopping at a tree at the bottom - you might be ok at the top for now but eventually it will all come crashing down.
Thankfully I work in an airline that hasn't yet decided to partake in such dreadful schemes and I'm pleased to be able to say that - but that doesn't make me any less concerned for the future of the profession and the industry as a whole.
Safe landings guys.