Easyjet Strike!

[Global_Global]

Just learned that there will be a strike at the AMS base of Easyjet Easyjet-piloten leggen werk neer | NOS (http://nos.nl/artikel/2109823-easyjet-piloten-leggen-werk-neer.html)

Google translate:
Pilots Easyjet lay the next few weeks down the job. Dozens Easyjet flights will therefore be delayed or not flying, the pilots union VNV threatening. It involves flights which are stationed crews in Amsterdam.

How long do take breaks, is not yet known. But the pilots advise travelers to keep the action close eye and seek possible alternatives.

The pilots go campaigning, because they can not find agreement with the airline on a new collective agreement. It's the coming weeks to eleven early flights from Amsterdam.
hot summer

'We're going to meet a hot summer,' says the president of the Association of Dutch Pilots Association (ALPA), Steven Verhagen. 'We are by unwillingness of the Easyjet management unfortunately forced to take action.' According to the pilots union has Easyjet made virtually no effort to reach an acceptable collective agreement for its pilots. 'The measure is full.'

Until a collective agreement has been concluded, should passengers flying with easyJet, keep a close eye on whether they can depart from Amsterdam, says Verhagen.

[LLuCCiFeR]

Very good to see the Easyjet pilots fighting for a better contract!

I wish them success, they work hard so they deserve a good deal! :ok:

[stable_checked]

They have my full support. The contracts at the new bases are c**p and need improvement to match the old and established contracts.

[Helvetica]

This is wonderful news. Seen and read in the mainstream media. Back to the good old days where airlines were held to their commitments. Good luck ladies and gentlemen.

[CW247]

Something tells me the easyJet average pilot age is slowly increasing, as 21yo CTC clones usually have very little desire for a strike.

[HeartyMeatballs]

Not just that but the FOs are simply heading off to BA for real contracts and a career and good luck to them for doing so. Rather than fight it's easier to simply move.

[RAT 5]

Would some local ez plot please enlighten us to the details of dispute. What is asked and what is offered?

[Global_Global]

The strike is on tomorrow from 07:00 till 14:00.

I think the main issues are:
-Payments when ill
-Employer contribution to pensions
-Heavy rosters

[ZFT]

Thanks for the info - I was just about to make a booking for a few weeks time. Will now monitor this and hold off.

[16024]

ZFT:
Where in Asia were you going to book an EZY flight?
Not one of those anti-strikers are you?
Everything from kids in the cotton mills to Chilean miners...
Some things just need sorting out. If negotiation doesn't work, persuasion might.

[student88]

16024 - Completely unnecessary comment and somewhat ridiculous at the same time.

[ZFT]

LGW - AMS return. As I need to connect back to BKK from LHR via the bus this is of obvious interest.

I made nor make any comment on the strike as I have no knowledge of the reasons and why so aggressive?

[16024]

ZFT- I apologise. I was assuming your comment was loaded.

[Global_Global]

The Dutch pilot unions are angry that Easyjet plans to bring in foreign Easyjet crew that "happen to be" in Amsterdam to break the strike.... :yuk:

If you happen to be one of those foreign pilots you have two choices I guess: go sick or be a :mad:

Let the fight begin :ooh:

[seen_the_box]

If you happen to be one of those foreign pilots you have two choices I guess: go sick or be a :mad:

This sort of nonsense comes up time and again. Under UK law (and I'd have thought most of those operating out of AMS on the day in question would be UK based) refusing to operate in these circumstances could (would) be considered secondary industrial action. If the union encouraged a sick-out, they would face legal action. Individual pilots would be open to charges of gross misconduct and summary dismissal.

It's very easy to throw around terms like :mad:, but it's in no way helpful to the debate, and completely ignores industrial relations realities under UK law.

[Global_Global]

errr as they are Dutch employees working from a Dutch base it is not allowed to have the work they are supposed to do (ie flying AMS based aircraft) with non based (foreign) crew. So UK crew doing the normal routes: no problem. UK crew doing "Dutch"routes... Interesting and food for lawyers. The Dutch law calls this the "onderkruipers verbod" which translates to "creepie crawlies prohibition" when (ab)using google translate.. which is close to: :mad: ;)

[RexBanner]

easyJet employed exactly the same kind of strike breaking tactics in Lisbon.

[RAT 5]

Ah, but are the Portuguese laws the same as the Dutch?

[Magnetic Iron]

The pilots going on strike have all our support.

What is BALPA telling the UK pilots ?

ECA and/or IFALPA should make a statement, no ?

As they will be working in Holland, then both UK and Dutch laws apply.

So if UK Easyjet pilots went on strike and they brought in Dutch, French.

[seen_the_box]

BALPA will be telling UK pilots what they always tell them in such circumstances: that they are not legally protected if they refuse to operate. UK pilots refusing AMS duties in sympathy with AMS pilots are liable to disciplinary action for gross misconduct: i.e. Immediate dismissal.

[zerograv]

easyJet employed exactly the same kind of strike breaking tactics in Lisbon.

Two years ago (Apr/2014) was in Milan Malpensa for a week and one day a considerable contingent of Easy UK Cabin Crew arrived. There was EZ Crew staying at 3 hotels. Apparently it was going to happen a strike by the local EZ crew the following days.

[Direct Bondi]

UK pilots refusing AMS duties in sympathy with AMS pilots are liable to disciplinary action for gross misconduct: i.e. Immediate dismissal.

Correct. “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has upheld a UK law preventing so-called ‘sympathy strikes’, which have been banned by UK legislation since the early 1990’s”:

http://blog.palmerslaw.co.uk/legal-news/echr-upholds-uk-law-banning-sympathy-strikes/

Jezza would like to repeal the law:

Jeremy Corbyn says he would lift the ban on workers going on 'sympathy strike' to support colleagues | UK Politics | News | The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-says-he-would-lift-the-ban-on-workers-going-on-sympathy-strike-to-support-colleagues-a6817091.html)

Some information on ‘The right To Strike’ – a study of national law in six EU states:

http://www.ier.org.uk/system/files/The+Right+to+Strike+A+Comparative+Perspective.pdf

Page 80, The Netherlands - Page 97, The United Kingdom.

CEO master plans of using one airline division to break the strike by another are being applied. Can’t imagine where this is likely to happen next………

[autobrake3]

The contract was appalling from day one, so why would anyone sign on to it in the first place ?

To expect sympathy for agreeing to such a contract in the first place is a little rich to say the least. To then become agitated about "foreigners" covering British registered aircraft is a little ironic.

[Tourist]

It sounds like quite an extremely stressful experience for any crews brought in as strike-breakers. They are caught between supporting their fellow aircrew and legal penalties if they strike in sympathy.

Stress is an illness which is perfectly valid reason to be signed off sick. I wouldn't want to fly with stressed crew.

[RAT 5]

The contract was appalling from day one, so why would anyone sign on to it in the first place ?

Hindsight = 20/20 vision. I'm assuming the VNV are now involved as a strike has been balloted and declared. If the contract was so bad, and Netherlands based and subject to local law, I wonder if the VNV were involved Beforehand? If not, then surely BALPA would have been in the know?? If not, then surely they could have alerted their VNV colleagues?? Either way, in a union represented workforce, it does seem very out of touch not to have new T's & C's scrutinised first and avoid this debacle.
I hear that other 'overseas' contract are poor, i.e. Portugal, but are ez pilots represented by the Portuguese union? I believe they are in Germany and strong voices were heard in Berlin recently. Given ez is a union recognising company why would they not act proactively, as we pilots are taught to do in every day operations, and consult before the fat catches fire? It does seem some managers might be out of touch with the real world. At Schiphol there is enough similar competition to be able to make a comparison to T's & C's and foresee turbulent conditions or not. That's what I presume they do with ticket pricing so why not with employee contracts? They learnt the German unions are not labradors or pussy cats, why did they think the dutch would be any different.

We see/hear talks of strikes in many EU airlines now, and not the bottom leagues. Are pigeons coming home to roost?

[testpanel]

The vnv (:ugh:) is only aiming to get rid of EZ at Schiphol.

Its a klm union, not for others.

I've been there, experienced it.

Be careful!

[Global_Global]

To expect sympathy for agreeing to such a contract in the first place is a little rich to say the least. To then become agitated about "foreigners" covering British registered aircraft is a little ironic.

My best mate took the job as it was the only opportunity to go back to his home-country as an Airbus rated Capt. The thing I like is that they will hopefully force EJ and others (Ryanair!!) to have proper contracts throughout the company. Yes the VNV is a bunch of KLM clowns and normally dont have my sympathy at all but on this one it is the only right thing to do: if you get a competitor in your backyard eroding the terms of us all (!!) it is best to go in hard. :E

[Global_Global]

ps I guess that EJ from now have full time standby crews in the hotels in AMS waiting as the next strikes will not be announced in advance. I will not be booking the morning flights ex AMS for the foreseeable future ;)

[9 minutes to landing]

The union with close ties to KLM (at Schiphol = loss making) is pushing for a strike in easyJet (at Schiphol = profitable).....no kidding!

Hello?

[Caravelle III]

9 min.

Hear hear

[RAT 5]

UK pilots refusing AMS duties in sympathy with AMS pilots are liable to disciplinary action for gross misconduct: i.e. Immediate dismissal.
Correct. “The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has upheld a UK law preventing so-called ‘sympathy strikes’, which have been banned by UK legislation since the early 1990’s”:

That might be an interesting one for the lawyers. How does UK law apply in a foreign country applied to a strike in a foreign country with local based crews acted upon by crews from UK? If I understand from the Dutch commentators on here the use, by UK crews, of Dutch based a/c to strike break would be contrary to NL law. In that case the UK crews would need to fly in UK based a/c. I know they are all UK reg', but not are all UK based.

It sounds like quite an extremely stressful experience for any crews brought in as strike-breakers. They are caught between supporting their fellow aircrew and legal penalties if they strike in sympathy.
Stress is an illness which is perfectly valid reason to be signed off sick. I wouldn't want to fly with stressed crew.

Every airline I've flown for has paid lip service in their recurrent training to the concept of not flying if under the affect of a close personal stress. In UK they have decent T's & C's. The colleagues in NL are striving for an improvement towards the same. You feel they are justified and sympathise and want to help, but can't. You are then forced, against your conscience, to attack their efforts at improving their lowly position and feel you are betraying them. It could cause anger towards the same person (employer) who is forcing you into this stressful position. That could be used as a sound defence to refuse to put yourself in such a scenario. It would be avoiding exactly the emotional stresses discussed in their own in-house recurrency training. How could any judge decide otherwise. It is not a provable item. It is self-reporting and has to be respected. Each individual would make that decision. If BALPA called for such collective action then that is open to legal redress, but individuals acting alone, another matter.

[oboema]

EZY making huge profit and offering :mad: T&C's to its pilots in AMS.....How wonderful! lets cheer for that and further erode our profession and conditions....

At least the "VNV clowns" are standing up for something.
Regarding "loss making KLM" , VNV cut pilots T&C's at KLM by 300 milion over the next 3 years to make the company viable again and help to adapt to economic reality.

United we stand, divided we fall guys..

[JosuaNkomo]

Nobody forced the AMS based crews to sign the contract.

[Global_Global]

Nobody forced the AMS based crews to sign the contract. Do you read other posts or are you just happy to repeat things that have been said already? Just in case you missed my reply to the same comment the only opportunity to go back to his home-country as an Airbus rated Capt. So for some people this was the only opportunity to get back to a Dutch base.

If I follow your logic you have to be happy with below par pay within the same company and industry lowering terms in general once you signed?

[JosuaNkomo]

It is relevant that they decided that reduced terms and conditions were an acceptable compromise to go back to their home country as an airbus captain.

I find it unacceptable that this union recommend strike action when these pilots signed the contract in the first place. You could castigate ( the pilots) for accepting this poor contract and thus ensuring future European bases will only be crewed by people willing to accept reduced terms and conditions.

Talk about shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

[Binder]

Many Dutch pilots from other bases notably Milan, declined the opportunity to move back to AMS because of the poor terms on offer.

As the CEO declared when questioned " you don't have to accept the contract if you don't want to".

On that basis it's difficult to have sympathy with those who knew exactly what they were signing up for.....but it doesn't make it fair or ethical.

This divide and rule style is not what most of us signed up for...:=

[Tontito]

When AMS opened BOTH easyJet and the future AMS pilots approached VNV to negotiate a collective labor agreement. The company made numerous promises but didn't keep them. This resulted in the strike which started two days a go.

[RAT 5]

The company made numerous promises but didn't keep them.

That would suggest a quite different scenario. It has been said that if you sign a naff contract don't start bleating about it immediately afterwards. Fair enough. However, if you sign a contract based on certain promises, which are then not forthcoming, then that is a mater of principle, loss of trust, etc. That is quite a different matter and, if true, is akin to fraud: i.e. suckering you into something on false pretences. One should not take that lying down. There has been too much of that by too many airlines for too long. Pilots have been their own worse enemies. Management knows it's really a vocation, not a job, and are tempted to abuse that. But is it true about broken pledges, and how serious/critical and about what were those promises? To strike in protest would suggest something very serious.

[Los Endos]

Signing a contract with a company in 2016 based on some promises is nieve in the extreme especially with the track record of easyjet's industrial promises.

Management knows it's really a vocation, not a job

I think that notion was put to bed at least 25 years ago.

[Deep and fast]

Maybe we should all wake up. There will always besomeone due to circumstances that will need to sign on the line to get home but hey, you can't go out on strike for a company you don't work for.
The airlines have been playing dirty for years. Screwing pilots to the floor, unreasonable bonds and charges for ratings etc etc. They're almost an employer monopoly and they know it.
Grounding the planes is the only card pilots have to play that hurts airline management and we should have been playing it more often otherwise we will not be high in the list of financial priorities.

[LLuCCiFeR]

Maybe we should all wake up. There will always besomeone due to circumstances that will need to sign on the line to get home but hey, you can't go out on strike for a company you don't work for.
The airlines have been playing dirty for years. Screwing pilots to the floor, unreasonable bonds and charges for ratings etc etc. They're almost an employer monopoly and they know it.
Grounding the planes is the only card pilots have to play that hurts airline management and we should have been playing it more often otherwise we will not be high in the list of financial priorities.
Spot on D&F.

Amazing how the EU (or should I say EUSSR?) is basically used as the main tool in order to screw the ordinary workers more and more and more.

No wonder 'The Establishment' (i.e. politicians, CEO's, mainstream media) is so scared of a possible BREXIT, because that would level the playing field for the employees again.... :rolleyes:

Let's see how long it will take for the mods to close down this topic or censor certain opinions that are critical of the corporate elite.

[captplaystation]

This is standard modus operandi (and has been for some time ) for every loco you can think of in Europe.

Are the Unions REALLY so naive that they don't see this cr@p coming ? or should we be worried about some funny handshakes / selective blindness . . . certainly used to be the case 25 years ago in the UK's "2nd airline", & I don't trust any "cog in the wheel", which a Union undoubtedly is.

If the management has loused on their promise, all strength to the guys, if they signed up & went back ahead of their countrymen in other bases knowing the rubbish on offer ? well, they are reaping what they sowed, world of difference between these two possibilities.

[LLuCCiFeR]

This is standard modus operandi (and has been for some time ) for every loco you can think of in Europe.

Are the Unions REALLY so naive that they don't see this cr@p coming ? or should we be worried about some funny handshakes / selective blindness . . . certainly used to be the case 25 years ago in the UK's "2nd airline", & I don't trust any "cog in the wheel", which a Union undoubtedly is.

If the management has loused on their promise, all strength to the guys, if they signed up & went back ahead of their countrymen in other bases knowing the rubbish on offer ? well, they are reaping what they sowed, world of difference between these two possibilities.
The unions are powerless, due to the EU. Unions have been sidetracked due to their national restrictions, yet national restrictions don't count for companies and can fly in strike breakers from other bases.

What have we seen since the EU came along?

More jobs? Yes
Better quality jobs? Definitely not

Forced to form your own Ltd? Low or not pension payments? Pay for training? Pay to fly?

Let's face it, the cake is being divided again and again until there is almost nothing left. The socialist dream of redistributing wealth, all under the guise of "never war again in Europe." The only cakes that do not get smaller of course, but instead get bigger and bigger, are the bonus cakes that are for management and shareholders.

Monty Python's Dennis Moore explains:

"The steals from the poor and give to the rich, stupid b..." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp-R1o753pM)