Pilots of Easy
Smart move by your CEO in passing the poison chalice of roster management to a newly designated COO – and I like the timing as well – just ahead of a ballot for strike action on 31 Jan. Neat that he now also has plenty of time to schmooze the city suits and convince them that he is St Ray and that any charges of mismanagement arising from strike action and plummeting share price will not stick on a re-invented Teflon CEO.
More thoughtful members of the Easy pilot force will no doubt realize that Teflon Ray has been monitoring the growing discontent over rostering and the foot-dragging pace of the pay negotiation, if not on an hourly basis, then certainly on a daily one. Members will also realize that in the event of a strike, the Plc Board will ensure that he is extremely poorly placed to pay himself and gang, the ₤10 M integration bonus, of which, naturally, he will be the chief recipient. The possibility that ₤X M will slip through his fingers at the behest of a bunch of pilots must give him constant sleepless nights.
Further thought will perhaps lead to the conclusion that you, the pilot body, has just exercised considerable power over your “management”, who will, remain in no doubt, continue to monitor both the increasingly discordant atmosphere within the airline and the strident postings of this forum. You have forced a change – which may or may not work out – through merely the suggestion of collective will. Imagine what the formal manifestation of this collective will could do!
Admittedly as an onlooker but also as an ardent supporter of the legitimate aspirations, collective welfare and reclaimed standing of ourselves, the worldwide professional pilot body, I ask the Easy pilots, on behalf of all of us, to consider:
1. Please continue this exercise of power by keeping up the pressure, through the medium of BALPA, for substantive and time scale constrained negotiations with the new COO, which will lead to formalized and permanent improvements in your terms of service and quality of life. Remember, your “management” has not suddenly become a band of Mr Nice Guys. When you force them to see reason, this will be of enormous assistance in the reclamation of what used to be the proud profession of airline pilot.
2. All non-BALPA members of Easy, please, please join at this late hour and become part of a juggernaut that cannot but help win proper treatment from those who now view you all with utter contempt – look at what has just transpired as a result of their fear of even the suggestion of you all coming together!