Thanks Keg for that clarification. Let's hope something decent comes out of the EA negotiations in '15.
I'm a long time reader (been in the industry for about 15 years), recent poster here at prune and like yourself have noticed a change to a want for group seniority. As for the 'only now' stuff, I think that may have been misconstrued as something said in cynicism, that wasn't the intent. Perhaps a politically neutral phrase like 'in recent times' is more apt.
So we know the whole jet thing is a red herring. A318/A319 is plausible..ish. 787 is stuff worthy of a Benny Hill sketch.
QF Group seniority has been brought up in these forums time and time again with all of them disintegrating into belligerent, petty squabbles with at least one group accusing the other of doing something over 20 years ago and apparently that's the reason we can't change something for the better NOW. Is it possible for both AIPA and AFAP to approach the table with a clean slate and start deliberating on how group seniority can work for our future ranks of pilots? No self-serving ulterior motives or puppet string pulling from
either side (the war that can't be mentioned, shouldn't). A mutually
agreed and
beneficial proposal can then have a staggered introduction to each groups EA when it comes for renegotiation (EAA and SH this year; SSA next and LH the year after). VIPA and the AFAP managed something in their last EBA (albeit with some objections, but you can't please everyone.)
The EBA submissions the LH had put forward to FWA recently regarding a pseudo-group seniority was a great step forward, however I think it was slightly interpreted by the other groups as one-sided. As I read it, (happy to be corrected - this is after all, an adult conversation) pilots could go from other QF subsidiaries to mainline provided that they have LWOP provisions in their respective EBAs. Well, no one else does! (I know JQ have something regarding to moving to other facets of the JQ business abroad and not losing their seniority back home). It's a big thorn on the side of the regional pilots, to which management flat out refuses to negotiate on. Career progression is a biggie, as seen in the EAA survey results just recently. The younger pilots of tomorrow would love to be able to eventually move on to mainline or JQ and stay within the group. There's nothing wrong with a senior JQ or QF skipper wanting to go into semi-retirement on a Q400 (it's a fun speed boat
).
But then I wake up to reality...QLink management (previously anyway) won't merge the EAA and SSA seniorities when the pilot groups agreed on a proposal!
I know this post is a tad optimistic or read, naïve. But I hope this is just something to start a
constructive debate on.
Fuel-Off