The Burrito attended a fantastic meeting yesterday to show support for my colleges.
Accolades: Organisers of the meeting. Special hat tip to
Joe Eakins who gave an excellent speech, hopefully AIPA will make this available in some form & all attendee's.
Others have done a good job of summarising proceedings, so I want to touch on another theme that I see running in this thread - those that desired to be at the meeting (to be honest, you wouldn't have fitted), but couldn't for all sorts of reasons. This group wants to know what they can do. Here's my take.
Barry Jackson spoke of the need for the action to come from the bottom up - Negotiators need leverage in order to be able to negotiate from a position of strength. What he is really saying is that there is only so much the unions can do without the support of the members & the industry. This is
YOU.
This was reiterated by the gentleman from the ME - his comments were that we were able to organise, unlike some other pilots in less "free" regions of the world. He also pointed out that there were numerous Oz Expats who kept looking and rejecting the T&C's offered by the LCC's here as a "retirement job", because after doing 900 hours a year longhaul, didn't want to do 900 shorthaul on poor conditions. Don't fear the "returning Expat" syndrome to further drive down T&C's. Hat tip to you sir for your bravery & words.
This situation will continue to deteriorate with apathy and waiting for the Unions to solve "the issue". You need to take personal responsibility to improve your own circumstances. The unions will do whatever they can to support you, however, the resolution to this is going to be across a negotiating table. To support the negotiators we at the grass routes need to stand together & do our bit by providing the leverage.
So, here's an action plan for everyone, especially those that couldn't attend:
- Unite get under the AusALPA unbrella.
- Join a union affiliated with AusALPA - AIPA, AFAP or VIPA.
- Write to AIPA, AFAP or VIPA - tell them that you have their support. Ask for you mobile & email address for this campaign to be added to their contact list.
- Talk - to your colleges & mates about what is going on. Convince them taking a SIN base is a short term job gain for long term career destruction.
- Organise geographic GA groups, either through PPRuNe or other means. Get AIPA or AFAP involved. Natural centres for this would be ADL, PER, DRW, ASP, CNS & the northwest WA region.
- Ensure that you are working for at least minimum award conditions - the Air Pilots Award 2010. Don't work for free, don't sell yourselves short.
- Write to your local member of parliament. Explain to them that the Labour, Tax & immigration laws are being subverted by these contrived shell company schemes. Point out the excellent safety record & the wealth of experience. Point out any "pilot shortage" is in fact a T&C shortage - experience just won't come home for the poor T&C on offer. Point out that whilst the pay is lower in Asia, these pilots are generally fully trained by their respective companies. This is the worst of all scenario's for Australians - Pay for all your own training and be paid third world rates as if someone else has spent the money to train you. A true double wammy.
- Write to the lower house independents & the Greens - The independents are particularly interested in Air travel issues as they are all regionally based & therefore heavily dependant upon the stability of this industry. They likely hold the balance of power & will be able to exert significant pressure in our favour if they can see the logic of our arguments.
Unions contact pages:
Contact List: Independents/Greens contact pages:
Ladies & gentlemen, the ball is now in your court.