Uncle Bob and I are in broad agreement I think. Where I would possibly disagree is his assessment of BALPA. However, rather than go into a sub-debate on the merits or otherwise of BALPA membership, the only point I would make is that, love them or hate them, BALPA is the only vehicle available to us right now to engage with the Company.
Following the latest 'insight' shared with us all by wind check from his extensive understanding of our industry, he does makes an interesting point. I would suggest that the only real difference between us and Ryanair is BALPA - warts and all. There are very few Ryanair pilots who, given a straight choice, would not prefer to be working for us. Conversely there are virtually none of our pilots who would prefer to be working for Ryanair - that should tell us something. Sure, we have a fight on our hands but we have a real chance of progress simply due to the presence of a Union. In the current climate, even if it is just for a couple of months, every single UK-based easyJet pilot should be in BALPA. You do not have to love them, but you do need to support them right now even if it is only to see out the current crisis.
I do believe Carolyn McCall is an excellent CEO, and in my experience the vast majority of the pilots like her. We should be under no illusion about the scale of the challenges she faces in her efforts to continue easyJet's success, and like all CEOs in such circumstances she wants to cut costs. Alas, she finds herself caught in the corporate culture so prevalent in the western world which seems unable to see the incongruity of massive management bonuses being handed out at the same time as sub-RPI pay deals for everyone else. In her defence, her bonus KPIs are not set by her and I believe she is genuinely a people-person who cares for her staff. The danger we face in all this is that we must be seen as an employee group who can be dealt with reasonably rather than just circumvented. Just reading the comments from the likes of wind check and others on here makes my heart sink, and my only hope is that none of our managers ever read this forum and know how low the calibre of some our pilots can be. When our managers come round the crew rooms looking for feedback from the pilots, it is vital they are met with rational discussion and not some rant from berks who are both ill-informed and unable to string two sentences together.