Well that didn't take long....
Capetonian, are you seriously believing something from the daily mail? According to the same source the Irish ATCs average €230K too, not! The Spaniards
were on a good wicket, now they are on a bloody lousy one from my reading of it.
Singa - The race for the bottom has not commenced in this profession, yet. You don't have to have sympathy for someone doing better than you, but at least show some empathy for those now suffering from imposed draconian conditions.
P_perez, good luck with your plight. Imposed work rules, practices and salaries are never a good outcome; it sounds as if you guys have gone from a 'great job' to a very average one (perhaps even a poor job). Hopefully your union can get in there and fight for you both publicly and politically. The
PR battle is always important and the truth gets in the way of good copy. Don't rely on public empathy you can't even get that from your own profession if reading this thread gives any clues. Safety, safety, safety is your
PR message. Hours of work (fatigue), no social life, forced overtime, strict medical standards, lack of experience on the boards leading to publicly available statistics (ie increased incident rates and/or near misses etc) are good places to start. Get IFATCA involved too, they have lots of resources about 'average' working conditions and safety expectations/outcomes.
It's good political pressure to explain why you are below average (in whatever category) even though you'd consider yourselves to be a 'first world' country.
PS I can't believe you haven't downed tools yet? Is that what they want you to do, Reagan solution then pending?