Well let's just turn the clock back then, and fix everything.
Quite frankly, I don't know how much the "qualified senior C&T personnel" were offered, but I imagine it was probably a reasonable figure for several of the top positions.
But the REALITY of the situation is that R.B. didn't NEED to offer enormous salaries to lure guys back to Australia - the country where Hawke had promised us we would NEVER fly in again. And for pilots who had been "exiled" for over a decade, I guess the well-worn excuse of "
I did it for my family", was at least LEGITIMATE this time!
Likewise (and I need to make this point) - the ludicrous salaries paid during the 1989 Dispute were unnecessary, as the companies would STILL have been flooded with applications from overseas pilots who would have loved to have the right to live and work in Oz, together with a generous, interest free housing loan.
Oh, and by the way how many ex-AN pilots applied to
VB when Ansett went tittsup?
Just about ALL of them. Just for the priviledge to live in Australia and earn a flying income!
How do you suppose DJ could have trained their crews to the required standards without the support of the senior fellows...? Where were all of the senior 737 C&T guys going to come flocking in from...?
From overseas again, I'd guess...the precedent had already been set, hadn't it.
How can you "hold the AFAP at least partly responsible for the current state of the industry..",
Johnny. What bargaining chips were they left with.
In truth, it was the Ansett and QANTAS pilots who held the strongest hand - had they been united.
Time to ask ourselves:
Where are we now?
Where do we hope to be in say, 3-5 years?
How can we get there?
How REALISTIC are our expectations?
What support do we hope to be able to offer other like-minded individuals?
What can be done to stop the "divide & conquer battle?