P.S To the white rate brigade, stop bitching and moaning about the past. I'm not saying to forget, but you should put it aside...
There are a significant number of us who have put it aside already. The 50% of QF crew in the crowd at the meetings in August and September are good evidence that we understand the implications.
What gets forgotten though is that many QF drivers saw this coming a long time before J* crew did. In fact, a long time before many of the current J* crew were even employed by J*. Many QF drivers argued long and hard for pilot unity on this forum even as numerous Impulse/ Jetstar crew gloated in the early days about undermining our pay and conditions and reducing the career prospects that existed at that time for QF crew.
Even as the J* widebody EBA variation was put forwarded many QF crew argued
FOR the J* crew that they could do much, much better. We indicated that QF crew wouldn't be taking jobs or promotions from any current J* employee and that we were after a seat at the table. When the quick promotions and payrises (albeit smaller than what they could and should have been) were on the table QF drivers were again ignored and excluded by the JPC and J* crew. I recall J* crew of the time gloating on this forum about their quick promotions onto an international long haul widebody aircraft and how the QF dinosaur was going to a slow and inexorable death.
So, we find ourself in the current day with the QF CEO doing to J* pilots precisely what QF drivers warned would occur a number of years ago unless there was pilot unity.
I'm glad that finally the pilots are beginning to show a united front. I'm glad that the crew to J* who have signed on since QF bought Impulse have realised that the 'golden age' that they thought they were signing on (quick promotions, the 'at least it's better than the $45K I was on in GA) was a smokescreen for continuing to lower the bar even further.
So sure, let's move on from the past and I'll say the same words that I've been saying on PPRUNE since I joined it. Pilot unity is the key. Until we stop seeing each other as the enemy we're doomed. So we'll leave behind the past when many Impulse/ J* crew viewed QF crew as their enemy. I'm thrilled that the majority of J* crew now view QF crew differently to those early days. Perhaps had wiser heads prevailed back in those early dayss we'd be 7-9 years in front of where we are now.