I was concerned this thread would degenerate into slagging and so far it hasn't really, which has to be a first!
The essential point remains the same:
Experienced, quality, Professional Pilots are globally in shorter supply now than ever before - although in Aus we can't see that because traditionally we have more supply here than demand. It is time that reality was used to our advantage because god knows the flip-side has been used against us by ruthless managers for many years.
Airlines globally for years have loved Aussie pilots because they have high operational standards and by and large assimilate reasonably well. They usually imbue the airline with strict operating skills and
do not undercut locals by any means, in fact they have often been paid more. There have rarely been double-standards in this regard as stated incorrectly by a new-poster here. Foreign airlines either simply couldn't get enough locals or realised that the extra expense of hiring expensive expatriates had other operational benefits.
What JQ are trying is a new low. It comes from the concept that a "Pilot" is a commodity like say a hamburger - as long as they have a licence then seen one seen them all. Why as an airline manager can't I just go and buy a cheap commodity from say the Philippines or Botswana. As that manager I can also harness the 'politically correct' theme to suggest anybody who opposes my plan is just racist and that "you greedy Aussie pilots are just featherbedding" (although what exactly you're featherbedding I don't know because globally speaking Aussie T&C aren't so good, but probably still better than Botswana).
But not all pilots are the same. Be it politically correct or not, pilots from many countries just aren't trained to the same standards as others - that's not racism but just fact. I've personally flown with folks of so many different nationalities and from all over the world and they have almost to a man been great
but they have all had proper training and employ strict operating discipline. They wouldn't have got into the airline without it and they weren't employed just because they had a licence.
And now most of these guys are in the likes of Emirates or Ethihad etc and doing well and good on them. Before the GFC airlines were desperate for pilots and even pilots from countries with sometimes questionable safety records (e.g. Indonesia and the Eastern Bloc) were being snapped-up by hungry low-cost carriers to the degree that flag-carriers (like PAL) were complaining that they were being bled-dry of pilots and would have to cancel flights - interestingly this has again happened just last week.
So back to our scenario and how it is fought. The Colgan case proved that an accident forced US Congress to legislate against unscrupulous airline managers employing lowly-experienced aircrews because they are unsafe. That must be one basis of our stance.
The other basis needs to be handled more discretely and that is that many licence-issuing countries just don't have the same standards as we do here. Yes pilots here have texted and messed-up A320 missed-approaches but on the whole standards are still way better than so many other countries and airlines. For short-sighted managers to go and gobble-up pilots from those countries (which as discussed previously is really just a tactic to try to pay lower wages and thus get themselves bigger and bigger bonuses) would be a direct threat to the Australian traveling public. This needs to be illustrated.
And the best
PR winner in this regard is the Garuda 737 prang that killed the Aussie journalists. Even the government at the time stated that other countries don't have the same standards as we do. It's a fact and can be used to our benefit.
And finally, although I am aware I sound totally paranoid, as an 89'er I would have to beware of trolls on sites such as PPRuNe. Social networking has become such a powerful tool but in this case posts are anonymous. What better way for a full-time industrial relations person to undermine new-found pilot unity than spend a quick 5 mins on a site such as this feeding in seeds of doubt to undermine a timid and nervous group who have clearly had enough but aren't united.
That of course doesn't mean differing ideas should be howled down with tirades of childish abuse as is so often sadly the case but it does mean we need to be a little observant. Your unity is not something that airline managers want and their bonuses are directly impacted by this.
Think of the big picture and take advantage of the global pilot shortage and the fact that Aussie pilots
are a sought-after commodity. Convert bitching energy into something tangible and you are on a winner.
Once again I apologise for taking so many lines to get my longwinded point across.