Charlie
Lets begin with some fundamental facts Comparative wage arguments were removed by the courts in the 80’s.
I agree that certain groups have moved their wage groupings in advance of ours you note that teachers, nurses, police, firies etc... are predominately the State public service areas as against us in private industry with a multitude of employers.
The Federation has many times run cases for increases in allowances and/or salary this occurred often using ex GA now Airline pilots to give evidence on the issues confronting our GA membership.
The Legislation has also often restricted us as well in that you were not able to run work value cases separately for a number of periods and further when you could it was so constrained on the measurements the margin was not significant.
As an example when the Awards were ‘stripped back’ we had to measure a pilot as against a trade level in the Metals Award. We argued that you should not be pegged at was C10 but at C7 which was a specialist trades level. We were opposed by the employer groups and the measurement came through at C10 trades level.
As an industry we do not show up in the standard qualification measurement used as greater than a trade and currently still do not show ratings/licences as formal qualifications (education standard which in my view ought to at least be tertiary). It is this basis that will improve the argument for greater return on the pilot investment in your own education which is never acknowledged by employers/Governments/Media/public.
We as a body spend a lot of time and resources on that argument which often falls on deaf ears.
Back to the Union: the body is a pilots organisation it is up to pilots to play a role not for me as an employee to set the agenda. If pilots want change or a specific policy get off your backside and play a part in the Branch or Council you belong to. An effective union is one that is made up of a group of united pilots going in one direction not a bunch of splinters shooting off at random. There are times when not everybody will agree on a direction but you have to compromise to get a better outcome. As history has shown whilst we fight each other we leave the boss alone (and that is often a disaster).
The Federation is the only pilots body in the country that does provide for input totally as professional pilots whether just starting out or as a long term airline member. We do not set our overall agenda based on the Company we work for it is about time pilots got back together and realised the challenge is not who is better but working together to get a better overall outcome for all professional pilots.
Lawrie Cox
Manager – Industrial Relations
Australian Federation of Air Pilots