GS-Alpha
To be fair, a negotiated permanent pay cut would have been a good plan for BASSA.
...
but not for it's members. Every single cabin crew member that you ever come into contact with will tell you "I'm prepared to work harder, I don't want to lose any money."
So, why, oh why do BASSA keep banging on about a pay cut? Because, as pointed out before on this thread, the crew complement reductions are causing BASSA to have a pay cut - in lost membership fees. They would rather WE take the hit, than them. No thank you. CABIN CREW DO NOT WANT A PAY CUT and moreover, we don't have to take one to achieve the required savings, so why should BASSA insist on one?
Right now, New Fleet is coming, and the cabin crew no longer 'own their future'... Control over the size of their oncoming pay cut a few years down the line is rapidly slipping through their fingers.
How would a pay cut now protect us against New Fleet happening in the future? It would be no protection whatsoever.
Most crew would rather "work harder", and have some form of protection against New Fleet. That could easily have been done by:
a. A negotiated monthly payment to protect our future income
b. A calculated formula for the transfer of routes over to New Fleet.
Guess what? BA have offered both of those things. The Professional Cabin Crew Council would jump at the chance to be able to negotiate them.
If the talks that are going on at the moment are centred around us taking a pay cut, then I predict No Deal and Unite are simply wasting everyone's time, while running a good business into the ground. This quote seems apt:
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy 1917-63: inaugural address, 20 January 1961
I fear that Unite are guilty of both, and that does not bode well for our community.
I am BA cabin crew and this is my own viewpoint and not that of BA.