BA Ground Engineers Strike?

[HOVIS]

BA engineers have voted to reject the company's 3% pay offer.

The vote by over 2500 engineering staff of Amicus, T & G, GMB unions was almost unanimous.

The rejection of the offer was due to "proposed changes to long standing working practices and conditions of employment".

Next stop, Waterside picket line anyone? :(

[White Knight]

"Sorry Guvnor, but the £60,000 pa don't make it worth my while to chock the 'plane on arrival, need more dosh mate"
And everyone (management) wonders where the money is going :confused: :confused: :confused:

[CessnaEng]

So do I!

£60k?

Bit of misinformation there, otherwise someones been raiding my pay packet for the last 15 years!

Incidentally although the pay offer has been rejected it is a little early to talk of strike. There's more talking to do before we're invariably shafted by our own:{

[ragspanner]

White nit i hope your grasp on the stick is'nt as limp wristed as your grasp on the intricacies of aviation maintenance. Try looking up cogent in the OED !:yuk:

[HZ123]

BA engineers do not chock a/c in the central terminals only while the a/c is under the control of engineering on the base.

However thay do have a tendancy to reverse the a/c into one another.

[ragspanner]

Badly trained perhaps !!!!:} .

P.S. Yesterday i could'nt spell ramp operations trainer now i are
one!.

[eng1170]

60k!!!!

I think if that was the offer it would have unanimously gone the other way!! That'll do nicely thanks

I think even the crews will tell you there is more to maintenance than "chocking aeroplanes", why, oh why is there this misconception that we are just an oily rag?

oh, oh - "on soap box",

The crews that I deal with are great, I've learned alot from them and I know a few of them have been surprised by a few of the things I've shown them about there machine. But on the other hand I've been in situations where I've been ignored whilst on the flight deck and had cabin crew give myself and colleagues looks that are not just offensive but extremely unprofessional.

How about more time spent looking over an aircraft in bits, and a chance to talk to engineers. After all CRM is a big thing these days, and surely the engineeer has a part to play in the safe operation of the aircraft. Maybe a couple of hours during basic training with an engineer where both parties can ask questions and maybe understand each others roles a bit better would help to quash this "them and us" relationship.

sorry folks - now "off soap box"!!

How do you flight crew percieve the engineer and do you think we deserve better pay? As a licensed eng pay seems to vary from place to place ranging between 30k-40k, is this enough? I am in the bottom end of this band!

The above grumble fortunately applies only to a small minority, so I apologise to all the good guys and girls I've had the pleasure to work with - we are here to help you and make your life easier, and safer so,........ Be Nice To The Engineer!!!

Eng



:ok:

[Da Dog]

Eng

Would love to spend more time looking around "my machine" with Eng department, but can u see the company giving me and you time to do so? Nah!

PS don't let your union shaft you like ours have, thats what the companies there for:*

[whats_it_doing_now?]

Engineers... generally its a :ok: but it does naff me off a bit when they are desperate to not have a delay down to engineering.
During a walk round once I discovered a nose oleo with no extension, so I went on to the flt deck and told skips it needed sorting out. We asked an avionics engineer who was already present to call for a techie to come out to fix it, and his instant reply was 'Should be ok guv, if the want to pump it up you will have to offload all the pax'. We told him if that was the case then so be it - it really needed fixing. When the new eng turned up he did the job in 5 mins with no need for taking off any pax!
Just like flt crew and cabin crew I guess, the majority are great but there are one or two who are a bit :mad: or :zzz:

[TURIN]

The mentality of not wanting to "cop a delay" all comes down to paying the engineering manager's bonus based on,
A: The number of Tech delays and
B: The number of deferred items raised/cleared or carried.
Your average engineer just want's to do his/her job but when your immediate shift manager is breathing down your neck to ensure HE doesn't get a delay you can see how the rot sets in.
Unfortunately some bad eggs try to look good in front of their manager. How many times have I heard the statement " got rid of that delay for you, managed to twist the dispatchers arm to put it down to weather/air traffic/cleaners/loading etc!!"

Back to the thread...

Strike is the last resort. Working with enthusiasm is always good for a laugh! :ouch: :ok:

[Dipole]

Also remember there are non-licenced technicians (sorry, hold an "A" Licence) working the aircraft. Most if not all can certify an increasing number of jobs.

Bear in mind that these people can have the a similar cost of living and their salary can be as low as £23K (or lower). Some of us can only dream of the magical £60K figure!!!

There are, within a certain large british airline more "unlicenced" than there are "licenced" engineers. I think the ratio is something like 8:1.

Both groups of people work hard to keep these flying machines in the air so please give us all a chance!

[Shadowpurser]

All any employee wants is to be kept it line with the rate of inflation, do an honest days work, and look after their families - I've seen the value of my wagepacket dwindle over the last few years.

White Knight I'm sure is reveling in his new pay deal (which I know brings you into line with all other pilots, so I have no truck with that) but while the rest of our company does no begrudge you yours - would not be a bad idea not to begrudge others in the company theirs as well.

Good luck guys and stick to your guns - I'll carry on offering you teas, coffees, cokes, breakfasts, deli-bags in the meantime while your fixing our knackered 737's. We all gotta look after each other :ok:

Don't let yourselves be continually shafted like we have at EOG/EFLGW. We can only dream about being brought in line with the rate of inflation - let alone the rest of the company. (WHOOPS - gets off soapbox)

[A and C]

I have no doubt that the BA management are treating the engineers with the same sort of contempt that was normal when I left the place ten or more years ago.

I know that none of you wants to go on strike but history seems to show that every 10-12 years the management get so above them selfs and badly mis-judge the mood of the workforce that a strike becomes the only option.

But this time guys DO IT RIGHT !!!! remember this is an economic war that you are enbarking on so get planing , you all need to get yourselfs a little part time job just to tide you over and ease the financal hardship.

But most important DO NOT STAND ON A PICKET LINE , wile you are outside the gates burning bits of wood in an oil drum the management know that they have you slowly bleeding to death financaly , if no one turns up on a picket line the management have to assume that you have something better to do !.

And last dont get drawn into the unions political retoric , this is a purely economic dipute , BA are not coming up to scratch as a place to sell your very skilled labour so you have just taken your economic assets away from them just as any company would do if it was not getting the financal return it it considered proper.

[kfw]

To deal with BA you need to have facts to hand .

Compare your remuneration with the Engineers of the major european competitors LH , AF etc if you are below market rate you will have the support of most people .

The problem with BA is that it employs too many people and pay a large proportion of them above the market rate . I doubt if engineers will fall into this category .

[208]

:O It would be nice to know what the pay is of other major carriers if any AF LH or KLM be prepared to post please do .

As a matter of interest BACX part of BA when it suits them has a licenced salary structure from 23K raising to 34k after our 3%

Good luck with the pay negotiations anyway:ok:

[PondLifeMan]

We wont ever strike and the company knows this.


The union is toothless.

However if you do go on strike the good news is..........

Because of the new JAR66 rules the company cant issue office workers with temp authorisations, they cant even de-passivate them.

Dont worry about us OSE's coming and saving the day for BA. We have been well shafted by the company lately. If called upon we will cause more problems than they could imagine.... Wheres that AMM for a wheel change??? you should get the picture!

Good luck if you go. Stick with it and dont let the company fool you like they did after Tim Lancaster got sucked out in 1990

PLM