Hello.
I've been lurking on this forum and now have decided its time to join the debate.
I have worked with many cabin crew over the years. For three and a half of those I was cabin crew myself. Almost all the crew that I have been fortunate enough to have worked with have been very professional, genuinely cared for the passengers and enjoyed the job. The opposite, in fact, of the militants who now seem to run or are most avid in their support of BASSA. Sadly I have now seen the profesionalism, the customer care and the enjoyment of the job eroded more and more in some of our crew members. However, these people are still in a minority.
The current terms and conditions for cabin crew are amongst the best in our industry. I believe that there has been safeguards put in place so that current crew do not see a huge erosion of those terms. I think this is wholly appropriate. A massive reduction in earnings would cause unnecessary pain to our crew, who have built their lives and aspirations on their current and ligitimate earnings. However future crew would know what the new set of remunerations would be before they signed their contracts and would be able to judge, before signing, if the job was for them.
I fear that the strength of the BASSA rhetoric, and the inability of the crew to question the BASSA reps without censure will lead to a strike and with it a tearing up of current terms and conditions. This in turn will lead to a loss of our most able and talented crew who realise that their various degrees that they have held will now open other doors that will allow them to keep the standard of living that they now have.
I would like to keep our current crew (even if, after the latest BASSA missive, they will no longer wish to socialise with the flight crew when on trips
) I believe that most still hold their professionalism dear and are still proud to work for this company. I think it would be very wrong for a strike to be called for the spurious reason of fighting an imposition which most crew seem to have found not much of a problem at all. The company was forced into this imposition because they were faced by reps who would not negotiate in any meaningful way. I think that if if a "No" vote was returned the company would do its utmost to protect the current earnings of crew. I think if a "Yes" vote is returned, all cabin crew contracts and terms and conditions would be in very serious jeopardy.
I really hope for a "No" vote.
Regards
CaptainBarbosa.