Maybe they can read something into the following:
1. Very few former terminal LAMEs have expressed an interest in returning to the terminals. And why would they? People talk to their former workmates and the word is out. SDO especially is running too lean on day shifts and the boys are getting burned out as a result. Frazzled and frustrated, running from aircraft to aircraft trying to make it work, not getting meal breaks... The strain is causing some LAMEs to take it out on each other. There are a few heroes who are trying to make it work, but for what? Eventually they'll stop trying so hard because frankly it's unsustainable. Some expect it to ease up after the 767s are gone, but the capacity must be filled somehow, and that will occur with more movements and shorter turn times. The SAM LAMEs who volunteered for the terminals won't know what hit them and when they report back to their colleagues what it's like the volunteers will dry up to nothing.
2. Given my assumption that the egos involved won't admit they've cut too deep and undo what they've spent so much career capital on implementing - unless their head is on a chopping block, their options are extremely limited under the EA. Consultation and a vote will be required to get LAMEs back to the terminals, meaning it's all too hard. Further, it's also been deemed all too hard to request former terminal LAMEs with appropriate licenses from SAM on a day-to-day basis, because it's touch-and-go whether they can be spared. The terminals will not be able to implement leave burn at a meaningful level, so SAM LAMEs will need to carry the can for SYD precinct leave burn. Many SAM LAMEs are sitting on piles of leave, but then they're also sitting on piles of rejected leave applications. Something has to give.
3. CT has a mountain of manpower in SAM, plus he has an additional 47 LAMEs in the business no-one had foreseen. They need work and it is coming: the usual A380 manpower black hole, B738 transition checks, rumours of heavier work such as two phase/SMC/A-checks per night, engine changes, rumours of cabin reconfig work etc. He won't want to release B738 LAMEs to the terminals, nor will he want to release A330 LAMEs either, with ex-JQ A330s with 50,000+ hrs and some pretty interesting emerging defects on them coming back into the business.
4. The
latest ALAEA notice states that there may still be LAMEs who "had decided to stay but have changed their minds", and that there are "still a few vacancies and people wishing to leave in Per and Bne that could be backfilled by those from Syd or Mel." There are extremely limited opportunities for younger LAMEs in SYD so perhaps a move interstate may work for some.
5. SYD precinct management have been presented with the data from their own people that in the next 5 years 100 SYD LAMEs will be gone by natural attrition.
6. The co. has expressed it is limiting growth for JQ International and that once mainline provides a return on capital they'll reinvest in the business and start expanding again. If AJ and GE are to believed, that will occur soon. The long term strategy has always been to use the A380 for high density slot restricted hub-to-hub and the B787 on thinner long range point-to-point routes; think secondary US west coast, Japanese and other Asia-Pacific cities. The airline is in its current state partially because the B787 is so late. The A380 has not lived up to promise, as evidenced by QF trying to either weasel out of the last 2 or convert them to another type; whereas the B787-9 is finally operational and so far has under-promised and over-delivered. The older A330s ex-JQ have 50,000+ hrs on them and they're a 60,000 hr airframe, so unless given an Airbus-approved life extension (unlikely, as there's just no fat in them like in a Boeing), under current utilisation they will start dropping dead in about 2 years. Something has to replace them. There are a bunch of B787-9 options for 2016-2017 that require a commitment in the near future. It's the aircraft we can't afford NOT to have, because strategically, QFI need them in order to replace the A330s, remain profitable and to then finance the purchase of B777-9s post-2020. Therefore B787s are on the horizon for QF International. There's no guarantee that QF Engineering will win the contract to maintain them, but if we do, LAMEs will need to be trained on type, taking even more LAMEs out of the business for months at a time.
It's a great time to be alive: certainty, blue skies, and managers wedged by their own egos & ideology, ignorance of their own business & lack of strategic forethought. Methinks pretty soon the bodies will start floating past.