PooDon - Maybe the reason there is silence is because we have seen the arguments and await clarification of the deal at members meetings.
As for you point that
THE ONLY DECENT PAY RISE I HAVE EVER HAD CAME AFTER THE LAST TIME WE TOOK INDUSTRIAL ACTION
I have been in ATC since 1971 so the following comes without reference to R/T, radar recordings or Staff Notices -
The first staffing crisis in UK ATC came in the 1960s. Difficulty in retaining ATCOs or recruiting additional non service people lead to the Radley ( ? ) report. This took the unprecedented step of breaking the ATCOs away from their Civil Service grade salaries and turning a literally bicycle owning workforce into car owners overnight.
The 1970s saw the IPCS Union negotiate the introduction of the 5 Watch at most major units in the UK. ( Aberdeen caught up at the turn of the century !!). This radically altered the working conditions of ATC staff and went from the old 4 Watch A(M/N)SO to the almost universal MMAANNSOOO. This gave ATC staff 18 more days off per year.
There were huge pay rises in the 1970s but only because of inflation. I think the peak was around 1976 / 77 when we received a 26% pay rise. The big problem was inflation was around 23% . Our pay was determined by the Pay Revue Unit (PRU) which simply averaged the private sector pay rises over the previous year and awarded it to the Civil Service. Occasionally a bit was added to anticipate the effect of rampaging inflation.
1981. The Civil Service strikes were as a result of the Government scrapping the PRU at the same time as they were telling Health and Teaching staff to go to some form of revue body. It didn't seem to matter to Thatcher or the public that the Government were applying double standards. As members of the Civil Service Trade Unions we went on strike. The result was and increased pay offer of about 2.5% but no return to the PRU. We were then "free" to collectively bargain with the Government who just slapped us with pay policy after pay policy. Pay rises usually just reached inflation and sometimes not even matched it.
This political strike motivated a lot of otherwise conservative ATCOs into long term work for the trade Union movement. Barry Gibbs, Doug Bush, Dave Vaughan, Paul Louden, Tony Cowell, Alan Taylor, Billy Rodger, Graham Clarkson and Robin Morris all served as reps and BEC members in the next decade. Hopefully this rising of Trade Union interest amongst ATCOs will produce leaders of similar ability for the next decade.
The ATCO restructuring of the early 1980s saw the demise of the old grading structure. ATCO IVs disappeared and ATCO II artificial barrier to pay progression ( called PPR) was dropped. If you were near the bottom of the ATCO grades or scales you got a massive rise.
The ATCOs Branch of IPCS supported the formative committee of UKATS financially and more importantly it gave them Union protection against a hostile CAA management. Only when the personal threat to the members disappeared did Union membership cease to be a condition of UKATTS. This has left UK ATC with one of the best travel schemes in the world.
1987 Working Practices agreement saw a productivity agreement which paid for significant rises. Each ATCO had spine point rises and some in the middle benefited from the shortening of the pay scales.
Following that the ATCO early retierment scheme was negotiated. This allows ATCOs access to retirement conditions which no other staff enjoy. CAA management accepted the scheme and ploughed in millions of pounds to top up the fund for this extra bonus. ATCOs paid no extra.
At the same time a sceptical CAA management were persuaded by IPCS to back the Committee on the Regulation of ATCO Hours ( CRATCOH ) and back the legal limitation of ATCO hours championed by Tony Cowell and the ATCOs Branch through many years of debate. We are one of the few countries in the world to have the protection of this type of legislation.
The 1990s saw some ATCO's Branch members spend years defeating Thatcher and then Major Government proposals to fully privatise NATS and flog it off to the financial markets. We were eventually double crossed by this Government but still managed to retain many guarantees in legislation which never existed under any other privatisation. Not least of this is your final salary pension scheme which under joint TU and management governance has become one of the best pension schemes in the UK.
Reacting to ATCO pressure around the UK NATS again restructured the ATCO grades around 1990. The introduction of ATCO 3 and spine points for all ATCO 2s was a direct result of negotiation. The ATCO 3s may not have liked it but the alternatives were far worse. For no changes in working practices the ATCO 2s gained.
The 1997 Working Practices Agreement again gave spine point rises and bonuses to all ATCOs in return for productivity. This negotiation reduced the number of ATCOs by about 115 but we were at least that number short. A very limited number of early starts were agreed but management made major concessions in returning annual leave to debiting by days and not hours to the benefit of all ATCOs. Minimum shift length times mean that management cannot bring you in for extra days to cover short peaks of traffic.
This year's negotiations have probably produced the biggest above inflation pay rise ever negotiated in the annual pay round. That includes other multi year deals we have settled. Almost no concessions were made on productivity. A daily rate in excess of normal overtime rate is established as the baseline for any additional attendance.
Management still have to come back for productivity negotiations under any new WPP negotiation. You will have your say on the policies to be adopted in those negotiations and a ballot to vote for or against the final proposal.
In summary,
never in the last 40 years have ATCOs gained more from industrial action than they have through negotiation.