V Australia Union Representation

[somewhereat1l]

Calling all V Australia crew. The long haul FAAA are now representing us and are pushing the company for an EBA with better terms and conditions.

Please join at:

FREE membership until July 2010

FAAA.net (http://www.faaa.net)

:ok:

[vacc1]

Maybe instead of posting under the cover of an anom username on this forum you should post this on the crew website for all to see.

Before crew spend $600+ a year on membership maybe the LH FAAA can also advise us of their intentions & what they can offer VA crew. This is the most Qantas centric union there is, whose main membership base (and therefore revenue stream) are QF long haul (QAL/QCCA) crew. Even if all our crew joined we'd still be under 10% of their total membership so I wonder how much time they'd be able to dedicate to our cause.

Can you also confrim this is an official handover from the short haul FAAA?

Perhaps as a start the FAAA could organise some meetings in SYD/BNE/MEL for the VA crew to talk to them openly about how we'd like to move forward (without ending up like the disengaged, management hating crew the majority of their membership seem to be) and after then some of us may feel more comfortable to join.

[somewhereat1l]

The long haul FAAA have already allocated industrial people to represent V and organised a meeting with the company. They have a list of issues the crew have raised and are keen to negotiate improvements.

V Australia is a new airline and running at a loss, for now. This will change and I'm sure the company will be making money in a couple of years if not sooner. Now is the time to start negotiating a better deal.

[DJCCGuy]

Now is the time to start negotiating a better deal.


You won't get it. Hate to be the negative one, but they're out to screw us, doesn't matter what they tell you. We won't get better conditions, we wont get more money, hell they've already cut down the overnight in LA to the bare minimum, and I'm sure you've heard about the HKT overnight rumour...there wont even be one, they'll put us on a plane back even, or overnight us for the absolute minimum just to keep us happy, and put us on another carrier home...sounds odd, but believe me they want to do it, including bringing us home via PERTH on pacific blue.

Now we're sharing duvets in crew rest? Disgusting. Unacceptable, but they don't care.

And does anyone actually know how many sick days we're given at V? Apparently its 10 a year?? VB get some amount almost double that.

And Fiji day trips?? We joined an international, long haul airline. Now we're doing day trips. The company knows 50% of crew commute - but will do nothing to help, not even provide car parking in the base where we choose to reside, even though we dont have car parking in SYD.

Watch the morale get lower and lower, its going to be interesting...:ugh:

[somewhereat1l]

Hey DJccguy,

I agree the morale is very bad and its only going to get worse. Its a shame V Australia already have disengaged staff so soon, less than a year since launch.

The paxing back after operating to HKT will not be allowed under the new award beginning on 1st January. Although as you said they will more than likely give us bare minimum rest in HKT then have us pax back.

29hr layover in LAX is disgusting and incredibly fatiguing. The 29hr is going to get even less soon as daylight saving starts and V Australia retime the take off and landing times for the LAX trips. Probably going to get less than 24hrs at the hotel...that gets us to your sick leave question as I'm sure all the crew will be maximising their 'manual roster adjustments'. We get 10 days sick leave and 6 URTI days. URTI days don't accumulate so use them up first.

Commuter car parking is one of the matters a group of crew have raised with the FAAA. We were told commuters would get car parking but it has not been provided.

I still believe its worth being a union member though. Its the only way the company are going to pay any attention.

Lets face it the direct relationship philosophy is a load of crock. No one is going to go to their CCDM and raise these issues for fears of reprisal. We can't even lodge a Fatigue Report without being told we are making it up. Great relationship building we have. DM's really are in LA LA land!

[somewhereat1l]

Membership is FREE until July 2010

FAAA.net (http://www.faaa.net)

[tong]

"If they treat us like animals we will behave like animals" - Its just a matter of "when" that starts to happen.

[somewhereat1l]

The company have agreed to negotiate an EBA.

FREE to join the FAAA for the time being:

FAAA.net (http://www.faaa.net)

[Pegasus747]

Virgin's long-haul cabin staff in pay talks
MATT O'SULLIVAN
October 12, 2009
THE international flight attendants' union is trying to strike a wage deal with Virgin Blue's long-haul airline, V Australia, whose crews are on common-law individual contracts with terms inferior to those of their counterparts at Qantas.

Officials from the international arm of the Flight Attendants Association of Australia met Virgin executives, including the human resources chief, Richard Tanner, for the first time in Brisbane last week.

The talks come as Virgin faces rocky relations with other unions. More than two-thirds of ground crew and call-centre workers recently rejected a management enterprise agreement.

The union's international division secretary, Michael Mijatov, said the discussions last week had been positive but the airline wanted an enterprise agreement covering cabin crew and pilots, which the union felt could be unwieldy. Virgin had agreed to hold further talks.

The base salaries of V Australia's 306 cabin crew were about $20,000 less than those for many of Qantas's international flight attendants, Mr Mijatov said. They also did not have overtime provisions, while hotel standards and overseas allowances were at the company's discretion.

V Australia has faced trying circumstances since it began flying between Australia and Los Angeles in February, competing against Qantas, United and Delta on a route that has turned from a duopoly into one of the most competitive in less than a year.

The Transport Workers Union and Australian Services Union will also meet Virgin management again this week in an attempt to resolve differences over a three-year agreement that includes cash bonuses but no base pay increases.