Meeting was good although I had to bail out about 1505.
I'd say that there at least 250 pilots there. I was seated in the forward section of 50 and so didn't get a good luck behind me. It was certainly standing room only though with lots of people at the back and around the walls. If someone said the final count was 350+ I wouldn't be surprised.
From the show of hands it appeared to be about evenly split between J* and QF crew. A smattering of DJ and QF Link crew indicated they were there but I wasn't sure how many. There was at least one Tiger bloke (he identified himself as such) and another guy from a ME carrier but I don't know whether it was Emirates, Etihad, etc.
J* A320 F/O spoke well on a range of subjects citing importance of unity, pilot engagement, flexibilities J* already provided, etc.
Motions put forward were unanimously carried. I won't go into detail on those as no doubt AIPA will be forwarding those on to J* when appropriate and/or including them as part of a media release.
Lots of discussion regarding the importance of unity. ACTU bloke spoke shortly and well. Support also from ALAEA who were present at the meeting.
Also discussion as to what is protected and what is not protected as industrial action. Also a short discussion as to what is industrial action and what is not. Emphasis on the various unions not organising industrial action.
Some discussion as to what can be achieved and how. Support is important to ensure that the negotiators have good backing.
J* A320 AFAP rep reports that J* reporting to him that 85 EOIs for the SIN base but some indication from others present that many of those EOIs would be to simply see what the T&Cs were. ME pilot reckoned that expats in the ME weren't going to be coming home to flog around for 900 hours short haul on T&Cs less than half of what they were on now.
Media were present for initial parts of it. Ch 10 had a camera crew for part of it. That's about all I can remember off the top of my head.
Overall good tone and worthwhile. I was particularly pleased to see fantastic attendance by some
very senior QF captains. I counted at least 20 744 or A380 captains and that was just the blokes I recognised straight away in the front half of the room. Realistically this doesn't affect them at all but they understand what it means for the industry so to those blokes, thanks for attending.
PS: Silversleuth has been pretty quiet since his post on 11 Aug saying that he thought hell may freeze over before he saw a QF captain support J* crew.
On top of those 20 senior guys, I know of another 10 767 and A330 mainline Captains that were there.