The vote is NO from me too.
People have said that a 'no' vote is a vote which undermines the Pilots' Council. I don't think so. The Pilots' Council, together with the officials of BALPA, have been unable to make any great headway against easyJet management - I don't personally think anyone could. Management were never going to accept our proposals and knew if they said NO, and were obstructive enough times, they would eventually prevail.
It is said that being a BALPA rep is a thankness task. Not the case - they have my thanks for all their efforts (and no doubt the thanks of the majority of other easyJet pilots too). I understand how difficult and frustrating it must be.
The 'pay deal' and rostering proposals put forward do not constitute an effective package. There is a lack of definition, particularly in the rostering 'protocol'. Too many lose ends to know quite what we are voting for. I defy anyone to explain in absolute terms the effect, in practice, of the clauses relating to this element of the 'pay deal' and whether the lifestyle at easyJet will improve. I don't know what the effects of the new rostering agreement will be. If I don't others won't.
The media has made the public very aware of sharp practice by companies and individuals who try to 'sell' products which are either flawed or not up to specification. Don't sign on the dotted line unless you are ABSOLUTELY sure you know what you getting for your money is the cry.
Yet here we are being advised to do exactly that!!! No one knows EXACTLY what holidays and days off we are entitled too; what the effect of the roster agreement will be; not even what the overall benefit is in pounds and pence to individual members of flight crew it is all so mixed up in pluses and minuses and length of service. Ask ten pilots what the benefit to them is and I can guarantee you will get ten different answers for ten different reasons.
I appreciate the efforts of the Pilots' Council, but this is the first phase towards agreement of decent terms and conditions of employment and - more importantly - a better lifestyle for ourselves and our families. Someone said elsewhere that the rostering proposals can mean all or nothing. In this form they mean nothing to us.
The first phase of negotiation is over and my vote is NO NO NEVER to terms and conditions in this form.
A 'yes' vote to this proposal is effectively a vote of confidence in management - who will then have a mandate to impose whatever rostering style they can get away with - and will make damn sure that at every verse end they refer back the time the pilots voted 'yes' to a ballot in February 2003. "Sorry guys" they will say, "we used our best endeavours but even so could not improve things as we would have liked (sound of Mutley laughing). Sometimes, even the best of efforts doesn't produce the results we would want - but then you knew that was a possibility when you voted in the ballot. No! - but it was there in black and white - we never said things would improve, just that as management we would try their best. If you didn't like the wording you should have said so at the time - too late now!"
It's our future. Mine is a NO vote, my family's vote is a NO vote.
Vote NO now to guarantee a YES vote when a fair, workable, package has finally been negotiated. This is not the end but the beginning.
...... steps off his orange box and walks away, head hung in disallusionment and disappointment that the dream could be over ....
