How's this for a scenario;
- Strike goes ahead (if I'm not mistaken - on the basis of QF management refusing to acknowledge guarantee of job security).
- QF group immediately approves contingency plans to train as many Airbus-qualified pilots onto the QF group widebody aircraft.
- JQ pilots are the most Airbus-qualified pilots in the group (by Airbus hours flown).
- QF A330 management and JQ widebody management/check pilots immediately commence CCQ on A380.
- The most experienced JQ narrowbody pilots immediately commence CCQ onto the A330.
- Within weeks, all QF Airbus widebody aircraft are up and flying again.
- QF group downside is that the JQ network is adversely affected (but since - as has been accepted by most on this forum - it is low yield, it's considered acceptable collateral damage).
- QF-Group management instigate fleet retirement of entire B767 and older B744. Suitable (domestic) replacements available with (hastily) re-configured JQ A321 and A320.
- Within a relatively short time, most high-yield domestic ops resumed to near pre-strike levels.
- QF management then read the riot act to all pilots still on strike; return on JQ-type conditions, or dont return at all. As PIA in effect, QF wind up the operational entitiy/entities of QF longhaul, and start shelf company that employs pilots to crew QF longhaul.
I dont know if any or all of the above can be done - but I bet that QF management will move mountains to make something like it possible. Ever since JQ was started, the industrial writing for longhaul (and to a lesser extent, shorthaul) has been on the wall! And now that the non-QF low-cost element of Oz aviation has been reduced to just Tiger (at this point in time, no great threat), the full-service, high-yield element has to be protected at ALL costs.
You guys are playing into managements hands by going down this path: by demanding 'job security' you have given them the issue they wanted to send the pilots down the PIA road. and as shorthaul will still be merrily plying the skies, what message will this be sending the public? What harmony will this encourage among all pilots employed by QF (considering that 'old' longhaulers are now on the shorthaul award and vice versa)?
And all for such a tenuous concept as 'job security'! You will NEVER win this one, because in the modern aviation world, it doesn't exist. And there-in lies the crux of the whole schebang - this is old-world thinking and acting when the modern one has moved so very far.
I think you're mad to be undertaking this action, but I know that my two bobs-worth won't count for a cracker.
I was once told by a grey-haired, grizzled old-timer, "I can't believe you couldn't see this happening! It was so obvious to us". He was referring to the Ansett collapse.
I hope to God that I never smugly, arrogantly, and so very insensitively, find myself in the position where I have to say the same to friends at longhaul.
Think carefully.
Good luck to every individual in making the decision you ultimately make.