Thought I would respond to some of your comments also genxfrog.
So the ALAEA put a "secret" proposal to Qantas almost 3 weeks ago did they? A proposal that forces us to take anywhere between 3 to 5 months without pay per year.
This is not true. The proposal we have put allows Forstaff to force you to take up to 3 months maximum LWOP in 2014 only. In return they must guarantee employment to the end of 2015.
Compared to the other option (being made redundant very soon) over the two year period you will give them 13 weeks pay in exchange for 13 weeks time off. You will also accrue 7 weeks annual leave, 15 days LSL and add 6 weeks pay to your potential redundancy package by adding 2 years service.
Mistake number one was to put the proposal to Qantas in the first place as it offers no long term solution to the bigger problem.
I am not aware of any employer who can guarantee employment forever. Two years is better than none and it gives us a chance to add to that. A number of prospects are out there such as Virgin or Jetstar work that we are also discussing with the Airport, Govts, Qantas and Forstaff.
Mistake number two was to make the offer "secretely" without all of us having some say.
As already explained, you get the final say on this. It would not have worked the other way around.
Mistake number three was to then go to the media and claim that somehow we, those directly impacted, supported the proposal assuming Qantas had agreed.
We did not tell the media that members supported the proposal. We said it would be put to a vote and didn't say that Qantas had agreed either.