Without wishing to comment on the poll as Dreamshiner has organised, I did wish to post a couple more thoughts here.
The very crux of the problem that people are complaining about is that BALPA is necessarily a grouping of individuals ostensibly acting under the same umbrella name to protect
their own company interests - In effect each company CC is acting as an individual BALPA, perhaps a BALPA franchise. Ergo, the umbrella grouping does NOT serve the needs of the whole in any shape or form, only the individual parts. The most effective unions utilise the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts. Think of it as CRM for unions...
It seems obvious to me that this is a major, major failing.
Is it beyond the wit of the Balpa general secretary to see this and therefore organise a superset of individual CCs - or perhaps retirees who have loved their career but are not quite ready for completely hang up their headsets just yet - to act as the representation for
the industry as a whole. Perhaps focussing on the more salient points that affect all of us who are in training, trained but yet to find first job, trained and experienced or in work, rather than company specific issues which can continue to be dealt with by the current set up. Areas such as Flight time regulations, PTF, base qualifications, standards could/should be looked at and pressure/influencing directly applied to EASA or equivalents.
If this IS beyond the wit of BALPA to see or act on, then one can rightly question what the bloody hell the point is. Would you sign up for BALPA if it were actually BALPA - BA, BALPA - easyJet, BALPA - Thomas Cook etc
(i.e. obviously only one company)
All the time this piece of the puzzle is missing, individual companies can stretch and push the boundaries of their own environment, using and reacting to the wider economic picture to justify reductions or failure to re-instate. And as we all know, only rarely will company A offer better terms than company B if B is getting away with reducing T&Cs. There is NOTHING to stop them, other than a determined individual CC...but even then if Ts&Cs in the rest of the industry have reduced by 50% then even that group would have to admit they had no grounds to defend on.
Elected Rep - you mentioned that it's easy to talk tough under the cloak of anonymity. This is true. But it's also very reflective of another failing of the union - to restrict the bullying (for want of a better term) that this industry is riddled, absolutely riddled, with. People don't WANT to be known by their real names because they are well aware that speaking up can lead to "...I'll
your career" - especially when you're on the lower rungs of the ladder. This leads to further issues, because those with enough seniority to not have to worry about this any more enjoy the best Ts&Cs and are disinclined, generally, to rock the boat.
This malaise starts and spreads from the very base building blocks of ATPL ground school up to stories such as that recounted by Fokkerplod. This is the problem. "I'm alright Jack and screw the rest of you".
I applaud loud Dreamshiner's main comments that maybe, just maybe, the penny is dropping and people are starting to realise that looking out for number one has led to this horrendous situation. I thank him publicly for airing it and I pray that this continues and gathers pace. However it seems Balpa are again behind the drag curve and reacting, not pro-acting (is there such a verb?).