Monday Pay Talks Deadline.......

[Check your speed with....]

I must confess that I have not read all 120 or so posts on this topic so I apologise if any of these points have been made or answered before:

1. I really can't see a problem with 2 year deals. We're over half way through the year already and if we accept the offer it will probably be the end of september before we get the money. That's nine months after the start of the negotiations. Do we really want to go through all this palaver again three months after that.

2. With regard to the pay rise, I know it's being paid in stages but at the end of it all the fact remains that in Jan 2004 your pay will be 10% higher than it was in Jan 2002. That's not particually confusing or complicated and after all, we are supposed to be reasonably intelligent people. These are salary scale increases not bonuses or lump sums so we will continue to see the benfits of that year on year. I've got plenty of friends outside air traffic who would be ecstatic at such a rise, so lets take a bit of a reality check here.

3. Overtime.
I have seen a lot written here about how tired people feel at the end of a shift or cycle. Well here's a revelation for you: So does nearly everyone else who works for a living! Are you seriously trying to suggest you deserve special recognition for that. If you feel too tired to do overtime:- DON'T DO IT! But there are others out there who feel they should have the opportunity to do some if they want to. Let's look at this for a minute. If you sign up to do 13 days, that amounts to less than one a month, so you'll be working on average about 19 days a month. That's still at least one less per month than the vast majority of the working population. Plus we also get more holiday than most as well.
There's been lots said about overtime just masking the real staffing crisis; it's getting management out of a hole; there should have been better planning yeras ago; etc, etc ad nauseum. All of this is correct, but I don't see the complainers offering any solutions. The management cannot just magic validations out of thin air and ultimately we're the ones who have been chopping all the trainees. I think we all know at least one ab initio who we feel was harshly treated and could have been given more of a chance. You can't just whinge about poor staffing and then reject the only possible answer that there is at the moment.

This is a pretty good deal that has been achieved with no great pain to ourselves, and I honestly believe that voting no on this would be a mistake. It would almost certainly lead to industrial action and while we might/probably would gain a bit more, those gains would not be in proportion to the struggle required to achieve them.

CYSW...