Worldwide Day of Industrial Action

[Agent Mulder]

With the ongoing erosion of the salary and conditions attached to this once great profession, I believe it is time for us all to consider a united global position to stop the rot.

Imagine if for just one day all Pilots and Flight Engineers stopped working. The result would be amazing! If all the bean counters in the world stopped working for one day no one would care, but if we all stopped!

There are very few professions which could literally stop the world. Send the bean counters back in to their holes.

Originally June 6 2005. Now Friday 8 July 2005 The united day of action for the advancement of the profession of Technical Aircrew. Spread the word!

[zed3]

Can we include ATC staff in this one ?

[Ya Zi]

All I can say Agent Mulder is that you were obviously not in the aviation scene in Oz in 1989!

[Agent Mulder]

Don't do the 89 thing here.

This is about saying to the predators who have contempt for what we do that enough is enough! Think of the possibilities if just for one day.........

Isn't it time?

[atse]

Last time there was a worldwide day of action goes back to sometime in the '70s - believe it or not it was in an attempt to get governments to take security seriously.

A day of action would actually get their attention, but its not "them" that would be the problem, but "us". Have you ever tried to get more than two pilots to agree to anything?

[Techman]

Your'e on Agent Mulder. I for one will not be working on June 6.

[longstay]

Ehhh, i think to stop the world you may need more than 2 weeks notice !

[Rainboe]

Er.........why? I think airlines' red lines are quite knackered enough as it is without pointless industrial action. To get any pilot support, you need a specific aim intended for a specific outcome, not just a daft idea intended only to show that 'pilots have muscle!' (which realistically they don't).

Come back when there is a suitable motivation! And I don't think 'Rumours & News ' reads 'Suggestions, Rumours & News'!

[Avman]

Agent Mulder, I've been thinking along these lines for months now. Sadly there are too many pussies/arselickers out there. And they are the real reason why the beancounters get away with their intransigent style of management. (By the way, it's not just pilots who are the victims of this in the aviation industry).

[Northern Hero]

Here we go again. Poor hard done to pilots. :mad:

Think passed the flight deck door for a minute to the Ops guys, crewing, loaders, check in, caterers, engineers, terminal staff etc etc that would be affected. Many of these guys are on less than 15K per year but do it for the pure enjoyment and buzz of being in the industry.

Don't forget, this industry is a business. We are all here to make money and that obviously includes the companies we work for, and like them or loathe them, the bean counter has a job to do. Otherwise we will not have a job. (and no, I'm not a bean counter).

Rainboe makes a very good point, with increasing costs and overheads, airlines, handling companies etc are having to seriously look at cutbacks wherever they can and unfortunately our salaries and pensions are not what they used to be.... but maybe we had the chance to change that on May 5th.......

[Hamble Boys]

It may be a romantic idea with some merit but history shows it would not work, expecially with 2 weeks notice.

Remember the air traffic control strike in the US? Ansett strike ?

[Agent Mulder]

Alright then, let's make it Friday 8 July 2005.

Friday 8 July 2005 the day that the employees that keep the show on the road take back the reigns.

Say NO to Management bonuses and bean counters who view the fee earners as unit costs. Let's see who is a unit cost after those that make an Airline take their stand.

Friday 8 July 2005 the day of the bean counter and counter productive management reckoning.

The time is now!

The only people making real money are the inept managers and the consultants, both of whom have no real long term future at stake!

Viva the lifeblood of the infrastructure that helps make the world go around!

A worldwide sickout!

[Rainboe]

Oh dear oh dear! So it's a strike by underfed, overworked poor airline pilots waving red flags and manning barricades all against managerial bonuses and employment of 'consultants' now? Let's save it for when it's needed instead of doing our best to rub out our own jobs!

Naaaah! Can't you see the TV news now: "Airline pilots around the world struck today just for the hell of it. Pilots paraded around airport terminals with placards saying 'No! to Consultants and Managerial bonuses!' .(background shot of large 6 bedroom house in countryside with little girls on ponies in garden). Meanwhile, De1ta Airlines went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy threatening 50,000 jobs."

[stalling attitude]

Agent mulder probably chose that date as it is his day off anyway

[bekolblockage]

It has been proven time and again that nobody is indispensable.

[7006 fan]

Let's face it folks, the world of business is all about driving down costs and outsourcing these days. For driving down costs read reducing salaries, for outsourcing read cutting Western employment levels.
The Financial services industry have driven down costs and cut western employment levels by sending all their call-centre work to Bangalore, Mumbay and New Dheli etc. What is to say that airlines will now start recruiting 2nd and 3rd world pilots tocrew aircraft. Loads of redundant Russian pilots out there following the end of the 'cold war' and a salary of £10,000pa goes a long way over there. I have flown central Eurpoean and African Regional, the planes are a bit scarey but one gets up and lands, the pilots do not speak English but since when did the Law of Flight require English to be spoken to make a plane fly. I agree make a stand fight for your right but as long as Joe Soap public is continually told 'it is your right to enjoy cheap xy&z' salaries will continue to be squeezed, redundancies continue and pretty soon we will all be earning the same as a Chinese rice picker and having to smuggle our way into some far flung shore to work as an illegal...unless the Public wake up and realise that most things cost money to produce/manufacture. By demanding cheaper food, cars, flights, holidays we are bringing about our own downfall. Karl Marx must his hands saying "told you so!!!"

:mad:

[Avman]

Spot on 7006 fan. We are destroying ourselves whilst at the same time contributing to the so-called economic growth of the third world. And where will all that growth end up? In the pockets of corrupt officials, not that of the workers. We (the western work force) will lose and they (the third world work force) won't gain a thing.

[Re-Heat]

A worldwide sickout!
Otherwise known as being too spineless to call a legal, official strike.

for outsourcing read cutting Western employment levels
With a rudimentary understanding of the economics of outsourcing, you would know that national employement levels in countries that outsource do not fall, and that specialising in higher-skilled jobs raises productivity and consequently ensures growth and your future wealth. Arguments against outsourcing are often thinly veiled feelings of either xenophobia or insecurity as a result of those workers inadequacy to retrain.

If you knew anything at all, you would know that the financial services industry is in a highly robust shape as a result of outsourcing, and draws on talent that it has not been able to find out source in the countries that have initiated outsourcing.

Avman - your post simply encapsulates a gross misunderstanding of economics. While in many cases individually, economic growth can cause hardship where retraining is not to the nature of the individual or costly, it benefits far more of the population of that country through economic growth and increased benefits that an increase in wealth offers.

7006 fan - you wrongly assume that such labour can afford to live in Western countries on a non-Western salary, and are pandering to xenophobia as a result of your tenuous position, possible as you feel that you are unable to retrain. Trust me, you are able to retrain, and the future is not quite as dim as you currently see it.


You might better direct your efforts at ensuring sufficiently robust regulatory procedures globally to ensure that standards remain more than adequate at all locations globally.

[JW411]

Could you possibly put this momentous protest off until 25 December and then I will definitely join you.

Otherwise I feel that you will have as much luck as you would have trying to pick your nose whilst wearing boxing-gloves.

[Avman]

Tell me all that again in 20 years time re-heat. We'll see!

[boeingbus2002]

Like the Tube strikes, Rail strikes etc. it will hit the punters more. They are the ones who keep "us" in jobs.
Perhaps a more appropriate action is something that makes a collective statement without causing too much strife directly.
Something like a "Go Slow day" where each crew adding a small delay to each flight (10-15 mins) by not "being ready". That way punters still fly, and at the end of the day the cumulative effect will be noticed.

[Smokie]

I think that you will find it's called "Work to Rule"

[7006 fan]

Re-heat,
It may surprise you but I actually have a degree in Economics, albeit quite a time ago and I have 'retrained', as you put it, a number of times.
If company x,y & z outsource to a foreign land 1,000 jobs each, that makes 3,000 less earners in UK PLC 3,000 people without a means of income, 3,000 more on benefit etc but they can always retrain for a career in the hospitality industry can they not.
Plenty of waiterng jobs, cleaners '...do you want large fries with that...' etc, or are you suggesting that retraining involves the company being benevolent and giving them, the redundant worker, a new job on the same or better pay with the same level of self-esteem? Am currently waiting the fall-out of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank which could be painful for a lot of those concerned.
Yes FS is thriving, the UK mountain of debt is now at one of its highest levels since records began. Last time that happened UK PLC was in a heck of a mess, Soros ran on the pound, houses came crashing down, people lost jobs, livelihoods, families etc. Of course, FS is also thriving because it cocks up the people's pension rights all the money has disappered but are the pension bodies held to account? No, they just move on after being told 'they are very naughty boys', what do you tell all those people who saved, in what was supposed to be one of the securest forms of investment and now have nothing for retirement? '...sorry...'

I hope you sleep well at night.

FS is thriving because it often sells products to people who cannot afford them, what is the current mortgage record -7 times salary?.

I would not suggest that the third world pilot lives in the Western civilisation, he would be a contract worker spending 3/4 weeks flying and overnighting then a couple of weeks off back where they came from then off on another contract. All the money he/she earns goes into their own country's economy and UK PLC do not even get the tax revenue -sensible economics that. But Mr Fatcat still gets his cream and a big salary bonus as he has reduced the statutory outgoings of the company -employer tax and employer NI. he takes his overinflated wallet and ego and invests it in a gilt edged investment off-shore and away from the hands of HM C&E and IR.

My economic nose tells me that UK PLC will enter a world of hurt in about 18 months.

:yuk:

[sinala1]

If you knew anything at all, you would know that the financial services industry is in a highly robust shape as a result of outsourcing, and draws on talent that it has not been able to find out source in the countries that have initiated outsourcing.

Its just too bad when I have to ring my bank 2 or 3 times before I actually get someone who speaks fluent english!!!

:*

[7006 fan]

Agreed Sinala1.
I am not being racist or xenophobic, just a realist. Why is it when someone, somewhere says something bad about another country/person of a different race it is called racism? There is plenty of white on white racism out there:
The hatred of the French/Germans/Russians/Poles/Czechs etc by the Brits goes un-noticed but oppress a tinker (traveller, didicui, gyppo, tarmakker) and watch the world fall in.
Maybe that is the answer we all work for No Fixed Abode and call ourselves Elvis!

[Capt Veeclean]

"The united day of action for the advancement of the profession of Technical Aircrew"??

That's just the sort of thoughtless, unprofessional rubbish that has helped to ensure that our reputationhas become diminished.

"Just imagine" if other professionals, such as doctors, policemen even the financial industry, stopped working for one day. What would we think of them?

Grow up!