Transavia pilots may strike!

[hvpilot]

The Transavia pilots may go on strike soon!

We are already negotiating since jan 2002 for a new collective labour agreement. But still no satisfactory result.
We've had enough!
Our pilots association VNV has held a referendum, in which 97% voted in favour of actions.

Yesterday, we received a message from the VNV that Transavia has tried to use us to fly for Air France. This in spite of the fact that they were on strike, that IFALPA has asked for support, and that the VNV has declared this work ''contaminated".

It's time Transavia management learns a lesson!

[Aviation Trainer too]

It is time you learn what work is HV man. The reason Buzz and HV were not merged was because the inflexibility of HV... Buzz was sold of and will now be closed because they were deemed to be unprofitable in the future.. Go figure what the status of HV will be.

The VNV (dutch Balpa) should concentrate on KLM and not HV because HV's only reason for existance is flexibility.. which is leaving the company quick. ..

Re Air France and on strike... when are they not on strike???

Look at what the VNV was capable of doing at Schreiner.... Sad, sad and sad. Having known HV for many years I second the statement of one of your senior pilots: I wish that all those young eager VNV guys go directly to KLM and we remain what made us big: a flexibel niche operator.

[BoarderDude]

Dear Aviation Trainer,

It makes me sad, the way you speak of Transavia.
On what grounds do you state that :It is time you learn what work is HV man. The reason Buzz and HV were not merged was because the inflexibility of HV... Buzz was sold of and will now be closed because they were deemed to be unprofitable in the future.. Go figure what the status of HV will be. ???

First of all, at Transavia they KNOW what work is. I don't know who you work for, but I doubt that you fly 737 3-pilot ops into TLV through the night, and at the same time you can be planned for a long flight (say a Canaries round trip) the next day! People are known to have FLOWN 50 hrs in a 4 day period! This is what the summer schedule looks like... It is NOT the fault of Transavia pilots that it is more quiet in wintertime. So don't start judging when you clearly do not know what you are talking about.

Second of all, it is very nice you can so easily point out the reason why Buzz and HV were not merged. Do you really believe it is the reason? You GOT to be kidding! Not even KLM knows what they should do at the moment, at least that is what the people in The Netherlands think...

HV is actually very flexible, even maybe a bit too flexible, why do you think that they make a lot of money on "ad-hoc" business?

That gets me to my last point: You insinuate that HV will be unprofitable in the future. If you are correct, than you have the great Gift of foresight! How do you reach this conclusion? HV has been profitable for what, 28 years IN A ROW??? Tell me, where does the comparison with Buzzzz start?

Personally, I think you are being a bit negative towards HV. I don't know the reason for it, but you are not being objective here. Think about it.

As for the strike-part. Since you are so well informed (apparently) about VNV matters, tell me, when was the last time HV pilots went on strike (as you make a comparison with AF).
Don't you think that not having a Collective Labour Agreement for more than a year justifies a strike?

Give it some thought.

Regards.

(typo's)

[rupetime]

Let them strike.

Anyone in this industry that wants to strike at the moment with another war looming and the airlines at an all time low dont deserve jobs - it wont take much to bring these airlines to their knee's - its difficult to negotiate a better deal when your receiving unemployment benefit ........its all about timing guys and HV and EZY employee's need to think on.

rt

[BoarderDude]

Rupetime,

I respect your opinion. Most pilots at HV are not really happy about this possible strike, but if you look at it like that, when is it really "safe" to use this method? There is always something going on: Sept. 11th, bad economy, strong competition, you name it! In the Netherlands a strike is kinda rare, nobody's really happy about it, but it has to be done...

By the way, why compare HV with EZY? What do they have in common, except for the strike-plans? :confused: Why don't you throw AF in as a bonus? ;) ;) ;)

Regards.

[flyingdutchman]

Crew at Transavia Holland, showing my age now, work and always have worked their dangly bits off. So much so that it has sometimes bordered on the downright dangerous ! Cabin crew at HV have always been held over a barrel, what with seasonal labour contracts and the threat of being let go at the end of a season, consisting of 364 days of the year, and not being hired back two days later, but flight crew have been in a slightly better position, job security wise. I am amazed that is has taken the flight crew at HV so long to stand up to be counted.

Aviation Trainer too's lovely comments re HV work ethics are not only patronising, but also either ill-informed, plain silly or just downright dumb; straight from company management perhaps ? Lovely 'quote' from a senior pilot ! Do enlighten us as to your angle of attack, dear 'too'.

:yuk:

[thegypsy]

hvpilot Patience Patience!! You only started negotiations one month ago. In Singapore Airlines it took 2 1/2 years to get our collective ageement at a time I might add when SIA were making ever increasing profits!!
When the pilots rejected it we were told by the new ex armchair Airforce General he would take it to the Courts {whicb are Gov't controlled}l and we would then only get 6 months backlog of pay as against the 2 1/2 years owed!!!! Naturally we all fell in line!!

Had anyone gone on strike if a Local then he would be in Chiang jail faster than you could say Nik Leeson and if ever let out would have difficulty even getting a job sweeping up in a hawker centre!
If an expat you would be on next flight out of Singapore.:rolleyes:

[seat 0A]

Yeah, so?
Go for the big, tropical bucks and suffer the consequenses.
I don`t see the relevance.

[Woodman]

Anyone who strikes now is off their rocker! It will do no-one any good and drive whatever airline further into the ground. HV has always been flexible because the staff are flexible. Trouble is that the passengers are only interested in paying less for their seats which means less money for those doing the work. If the yield on each seat is less then there's no point in the staff asking for more.
HV has made money for years but for the majority of those years the black ink came from aircraft sales and some damn good accountants, not seat sales.

[capt cb]

Gents, water under the bridge (freely translated dutch verb): strike is off!

rgrds,
capt cb

[thegypsy]

Seat OA The relevance is that pilot's salaries ,terms and conditions are under attack worldwide!! In most cases from an already low base.

As for 'big tropical bucks' Don't make me laugh.:eek:

PS Why is that aircraft tickets get cheaper and cheaper in real terms year after year? I know of very few things I buy that cost less and less.

[ATC Watcher]

Well, if the pax expect ( and apparently get ) cheaper and cheaper tickets, while other costs like landing fees, route charges, and fuel prices ( a US scenario puts the barrel up to 80 USD in case NBC warheads are used ir the coming Irak war ) soar continuously, I wonder wehre the next savings will be....

[hvpilot]

Thegypsy,
We have been negotiating about 13 months(minus 911 and the odd vacation period).

Anyway, the strike is off; seems that we have been able to make a fair deal. Now it's up to the pilots counsil to accept (or reject) the deal.

Thanks for the support everyone.

[quickturnaround]

Aviation Trainer Too, you clearly show that you do not know what is going on at Transavia. The statement of that old fox is clearly outdated, since in fact all mayor buisiness decisions are made by the KLM.
Therfore the freedom for Transavia as a niche player is somewhat limited.

Well ATC watcher, I know where we can save a lot of money, Let get rid of the high ATC-costs and we can make the tickets even more cheap!

But HV-pilot I am happy that you guys got your deal, I hope it was worth the fuss VNV made.

Happy landings, QTA