Your argument falls down here because this is not true. The
VB group just wouldn't vote for a pay cut. Currently these are still two separate businesses as far as EBAs are concerned and neither have any influence over the other.
Sadly, I believe you are incorrect in your reading of the landscape on both counts
Firstly,
VB have already voted for a pay cut. When
VB pilots accepted lower conditions for Ejet crew, they cast the mould for the future. We are all now fighting a rear guard action to regain that lost ground.
Secondly, to think that it is as simple as two different companies is naive in the extreme.
VB negotiators will be sitting across the table from the same individuals as the VA negotiators are. To think that those individuals, who are representing the Virgin Group, are not working to a Group strategy is folly.
The company strategy is now in the open for all to see, and make no mistake, it is to lower the cost of pilots over the long term. They have already been very successful in achieving that with the Ejet conditions and V Australia's current contracts. Clearly they are working toward locking that into the EBA with lower salaries for new Captains at V. There is no doubt that if they are successful in doing so, they will be putting forward a proposal to
VB that gives modest increases to current pilots in return for lower salaries for new pilots.
I am quietly confident that we are reaching the end of the era where pilots sell out the next generation for their own gain. The market is turning in our favour, so hopefully some strong leadership from the unions will put the steel into the boys to stand firm on not selling out the next generation.