Originally Posted by fedsec
Thank you Romulus. I knew you would not be seeing our campaign through rose coloured glasses but some of your advice is good. Just a couple of points -
I don't know enough about the pilot situation to really comment except in the general terms that I have, I do care more about the engineering side. In the same way I got to know everyone by name at AAES when I was there I got to know the history hence the comments on SARS and 9/11. There is an opportunity in Aus aviation to streamline QF maintenance but doing it through pay conditions isn't the way to go and if it's done well it brings a lot of stuff back on shore.
Originally Posted by fedsec
Originally Posted by romulus
Um, aren't YOU the ones going on strike and disrupting me?
We haven't yet.
The comment about striking was meant to represent what the average flyer will believe is happening.
Actually, what you did was worse. I changed my travel plans and rescheduled some meetings on the day you intended to strike, no big deal to me, a little inconvenient perhaps but, overall, fair given you gave me plenty of notice.
Then you didn't strike that day and changed it to another day which meant the rescheduled meetings were, you guessed it, rescheduled again. I'm starting to be disrupted in my overall work rather than just shuffling a few things around (which happens anyway) and when I or my admin people talk to other people they all go "Damn engineers and their union". Now you're starting to piss the people I'm working with off, you're pissing the people I'm meeting with off and that starts to piss me off. You're starting to disrupt me as part of your fight with your boss and what can I do about that? You can see where I'm going, you know I have a fair knowledge of your situation, you should know I'm actually reasonably sympathetic in that informed way, but what do you expect the uninformed (and there's no real reason they should be informed) majority to do?
Think of Paul Keating and interest rates. He certainly went way to high but what he did was correct, a massive correction to clean out the crap and make it clear he was serious rather than fiddling about with rates like they do now. Make it clear you will take the action you propose and management will get the message. Denial is a very powerful human emotion, we all do it. QF management will treat you like nurses are treated, they will believe you won't act so much because you care too much about you airline in the way that nurses care about their patients.
If you're going to strike, then announce it and strike. Stick to it. You've warned us, the public, well ahead of time and whilst we think it's dreadful we accommodate. Borghetti loves it and pitches some kind of deal to get business travellers to see Virgin as a real alternative (If I were him I'd go to all the corporate travel arrangers like Carlson Wagonlit and give free upgrades to their top tier corporates on the days you guys are on strike to get them into the new product) and you really, really, slam your management whilst impacting the public the least.
Think about the key message in that last paragraph. Imagine the opportunity for Virgin, the competition (and no, I do not regard Tiger as QF competition in this regard) and what that means to QF management. THAT is your schwerpunkt, your point of maximum attack. QF don't mind a lot of things and will clearly fight you but if the activities seem to help the competition to a significant degree then you are playing a card that makes them crap themselves.
Originally Posted by fedsec
Originally Posted by romulus
Sunfish is right, you guys are fighting the wrong war. Get genuine
PR in from the outside.
Not sure about the pilots but we do have a media company that advises and helps us prepare. At the end of the day, our message is delivered by Paul Cousins and I no matter who is assiting or advising us. We have done our media training and just need the 5 key ponits. The AIPA message similarly will be delivered by Barry and Richard. It gives it far more credibility than a spokesmodel.
To be fair the ALAEA does it far better than the pilots are doing it, plus you have the advantage of not beign seen as some rich boys flying club with all the perks of global travel and glam hosties on tap (regardless of what the reality is) . It is critical that you or PC do the talking as a "man of the workers/people" as opposed to an attractive spokesbint who is immediately tagged with "ooh, look, a bimbo". You are the working class guys, getting shafted by greedy management, etc etc etc. You don't *SAY* that, you let people come to that conclusion themselves and it is way more powerful a message then.
Here's a quick "media soundbite". As always, make sure to put real figures in there.
"Engineers 3%, that's 2c per ticket, after we sought no payrise when times really were tough (SARS, 9/11), CEO 37% plus millions in options and what did that role take in the years of SARS and 2001? How does that make sense? Who is the greedy party here. And by the way, if we do go on strike we'll give plenty of notice so the only real inconvenience is to QF management. Business travellers might like to see if John Borghetti at Virgin will give them a free upgrade to trial his business class product..."
I don't care about safety as a front of mind thought, it's what's called a hygeine factor, I just assume it's there. Sure, I don't fly some third world airlines because I perceive they are too dodgy but in your category pick any of them, even Air France with their current issue, and I don't think the average punter will ever say they are unsafe. Focus on what makes a difference to me to win the publicity war, focus on what strikes fear into AJ and win that war. I've flown Virgin's new class and if AJ doesn't crap himself when others do as well then he's really, REALLY in trouble. They were good, very good. But it takes people to experience that to believe Virgin is not some lower status airline than QF because of their semi LCC legacy. That's a lever to get Joyce jumping to your tune.
How they respond to that will be interesting.