Firstly, let's not talk around the braai as our SA friends would say. I too am extremely upset with the leadership team and their lack of being able to stand behind ATCOs and their "needs". It seems as if piece by piece our perks are being chipped away and no prospect or plan is being considered for retaining staff.
Dubai and most of the Middle East for that matter is experiencing what most parts of the World is not. Extreme increase in traffic, strong inflation of prices and a work environment that when it comes to equipment, procedures etc. simply sucks! Therefore anyone that is not in this part of the World simply cannot point fingers at their fellow ATCOs over here, for standing up for their rights and extreme worries.
The lame excuse there is no money in the pot is old and simply not good enough. How can it be that Dubai Airports is proudly announcing on their website that they are spending a whopping 7.8 BILLION DOLLARS on airport expansions etc. to increase their capacity from 60 mio pax to 90 mio pax by 2018. Let's understand here that we therefore will be capable of moving 50% more pax (and they're the ones essentially paying our salaries). In other words there will be up to 50% more revenue for DA and we are expected to cope with this and just suck it up oh and wait, according to the roadshow no future benefits for us besides being proud of ourselves for being a part of this extraordinary development! Let's not forget that Emirates and DA are making extraordinary profits year after year and all their employees are getting increases and profit shares, why not us?
Let's put this into reality: A kid sets up a lemonade stand in front of his house and sells 1 liter per day. He pays his parent's $ 2.- per liter (supermarket cost) and is allowed to keep the other $3.- he makes.
Now all of a sudden the local rugby, cricket, football and marathon teams come jogging by his house everyday and he starts selling 11 liters per day. Well it goes without saying that the little guy has loads more work to do to keep up with the demand, but to make matters worse his parents decide that he is still only allowed to keep $3.- a day and they will take the rest of the profits and stick it in their pockets. Which one of you out there would tell the kid to stop selling lemonade or at least try to renegotiate with his parents? Well the same goes for Dubai ATC...
One last thing. It was clearly mentioned at the roadshow that any ATCOs only interested in the financial benefits of working in Dubai are in the wrong place. Isn't the financial and lifestyle criteria exactly why most of us are here in the first place?
