NJS Pilots - 97% vote for Protected Industrial Action

[3 Holer]

one of the Capt's off to Tiger, and probably taking a bunch of his mates with him! .......................

He's not, but a couple more have their hats in the ring anyway !

[cunninglinguist]

not to mention one of the Capt's off to Tiger, and probably taking a bunch of his mates with him!

Poor buggers, from 1 outfit to another outfit, with a demotion thrown in for good measure

[Launch_code_Harry]

Not to mention the ongoing ability to utilise the perennial "base viability" threat to keep the troops bending over.

[MinimaNoContact]

with a demotion thrown in for good measure

Direct entry command Im told

[cunninglinguist]

Well I'm not going to say bulls hit and look like a pratt ( again ) further down the track but will say would be EXTREMELY surprised knowing that a) same guys running Tiger as Jetstar, and 717,146 not considered to be real A/C ( above 55ton ) NOT my opinion BTW, and b) from memory the only guys that had 'Bus experience in NJS were on the A300 15 years ago.
Still, they hired someone sacked from Jet*, so they are obviously not too fussy

[blaster666]

Ho Ho Ho

After all the huffing & puffing I understand you boys are now accepting a 5 YEAR NON UNION agreement for the princely sum of CPI. Now there's an outcome that will make "the man" shake in his boots the next time the NJS 'collective' warriors threaten to finally achieve just rewards !!!

Please tell me it ain't true !?

[RENURPP]

Blaster,


Hows the AWA going?

[Toolman101]

you boys are now accepting a 5 YEAR NON UNION agreement for the princely sum of CPI.

Surely the TWU are better than that at negotiations.

I can't believe they would come away with so little after the support expressed by the pilot group

[kavakid]

Minima No Contact I here there is a pilot shortage so if you ain't happy LEAVE all the better for those who like there job and lifestyle. For those who belive the pilot's can try and gain a big pay rise think again. NJS is a contract company they don't have the ability to increase fares to give out more money, they have a fixed contract per hour. Don't get me wrong NJS isn't the best company to work for, but sometimes take a deep breath and enjoy life. $130000 as a Captain $75000 as FO, B scale well those choose to come on board. If you can't live on that please feel free to move on. To the 3 pilot's who stuck there necks out when no one wanted to I thank you, to all the would be world changers, there is nothing forcing you to stay.

[power_up]

Does anyone know what NJS management are doing about this or their panic mode? Are the other business units ie SurvAust being effected by this? Been out of NJS for a while, is the master race boy still portraying the face of reason?

[blaster666]

I told you so !

Renurpp - I got me an AWA until 2010 with guaranteed percentage increases at least 1% above CPI plus (clever) additional leave provisions (can't tell you more detail as I signed confidentiality provisions).

I'll take my chances after that.

Mate, what have YOU got the boys ?

[A31J]

wot tha?!

$75k as f/o on b scale?

if only

at present, for those on AWAs, a 146 f/o takes home about $57k a year by the time you've contributed to your cost of training..over 2 years!

if you then take off another $15k in the 1st year on the training wage, $75k a year is heaven, or nirvana or somewhere..just not HERE!

[The Mr Fixit]

I know this is a really bad idea on this forum but I can't stop myself..........

The NJS pilots seemed so resolute in their actions that I thought they would really achieve something notable

In my opinion they did not

The question I ask is

What changed you guys from chestbeating silverbacks to sullen men ?

[Toolman101]

I got me an AWA until 2010 with guaranteed percentage increases at least 1% above CPI plus (clever) additional leave provisions (can't tell you more detail as I signed confidentiality provisions).

I don't want to sound like a doubting Thomas Blaster, but until I see that contract for myself I think you are either sh*t stirring or you must have 'special' qualities that the rest of us don't have.


Which is it?????

[blaster666]

No Special Qualities

Toolman - all I did, many months agos when everyone else had their fists in the air & singing "together united, we'll never be defeated" is ask ...."you want us to sign AWA's, you say you will pay 2% for nothing & more if we can find 'offsets', well what if I changed my scheduled hours, call outs, overtime provisions....etc. etc." would that be worth X% per annum" and I am pleased to say ...............it was

[Toolman101]

Thanks for your answer Blaster.

One other question ,it's strange that your AWA is only till 2010 and not 2012 like everybody else

[displaced gangster]

Blaster,
The name Vidkin Quisling comes to mind after reading your posts.
Good luck with your aspirations re "the CIA".
You may be over qualified in the personal integrity and loyalty areas

[Whiskey Oscar Golf]

Ahhh Blaster, good on you mate you got to have your cake and eat it.
Quote:
" all I did, many months agos when everyone else had their fists in the air & singing "together united, we'll never be defeated" is ask ...."you want us to sign AWA's,"

So when all the boys and girls were putting their jobs and futures on the line with the threat of organised industrial action you grovelled on up to management and said " I'll be the first to break and split them if you give me an extra five pieces of silver" Well good on you, that's character and you'd be one hell of a workmate standing by your mates. You call it your own bargaining power, you poor deluded fool. Do you think you'd have got the same deal if the rest of your workmates hadn't "together, we'll never be defeated"? I think not it was their commitment to getting a better deal that got yours and now you gloat, you idiot.

Blaster you and your kind who selfishly feather their own nests using the hard work and risk of others should be dealt with in kind and left to stand alone with your "powerful" individual bargaining.

Sorry for getting personal people I don't normally do this, but this deluded clown has got me going with his superior style. Well done NJS mob for taking a stand and if you didn't get everything at least you showed you had some courage and got blaster his wing ding deal.

[ITCZ]

Originally Posted by blaster666

well what if I changed my scheduled hours, call outs, overtime provisions....etc. etc." would that be worth X% per annum?

Have to admit that is quite a cunning plan, blaster, especially if one knows how the NJS OCC (crewing) operates. With the plethora of AWAs there is no list of "pilots on these terms, and pilots on those terms". The people who do the rostering and crewing arrangements simply have a guide that lists the most restrictive of the workplace arrangements.
Therefore you will be rostered as per the collective agreement, and get paid as per your individual agreement. No one in OCC is going to refer to an individual entitlement list for CAPT/FO BLASTER when they are scrambling for a reserve crew. You will be able to refuse duties that you don't want etc because they wont have a crib sheet with your AWA rules on it.

Originally Posted by Mr Fixit

The NJS pilots seemed so resolute in their actions that I thought they would really achieve something notable
In my opinion they did not

Fixit, I had to delete my earlier, very specific post in response to your comment because it contained items that were before the courts, and other items that could arguably been described as company in confidence and therefore a breach of an employees duty to her employer. I'll try again with less specific or controversial info.

In straight $$ terms the Employee Collective Agreement on the table is not particularly remarkable, no. The salaries and allowances are pretty much those that would have been paid to NJS pilots had the pilots made no concessions to get the 717 work back in 2004, and then the full CPI salary adjustments been applied. In other words, 2003 conditions adjusted to 2007 as though nothing had happened with the 717 introduction.

There are several improvements over that agreement, but you could be forgiven in thinking that nothing remarkable had been achieved. In the last few months we have seen evidence of a pilot shortage, and now we all have dreams of winning the lottery -- jet operators, with handfuls of cash, looking to woo us to work for them, us sitting back, saying eeny meeny miny mo.... Certainly if you too have been captured by this latest wet dream, then the agreement on our table might not look so appealing.

However that would miss the point. This dispute was never about getting more money. Look at every press release from the TWU, do the google search, and you will see the statement "its not about more money."

This dispute was triggered not by the pilot shortage and wanting more money. This dispute was triggered by NJS using the 'flexible' legislative arrangements around AWA and individual contracts to avoid paying their pilots the money they had already agreed. BAe146 Pilots on individual contracts, with no need to sign updated contracts designed for the B717 introduction with degraded pay and conditions, had their annual salary increases frozen.

Meanwhile over in recruitment land, NJS proposed to introduce B scale wages, pay for endorsements and large bonds for new pilots. This was against a basic condition that all NJS pilots would be employed on substantially similar terms.

Each month as pilots won upgrades or promotions, the AWAs being presented had less money and more impositions on the pilots. Individual contracts were used to 'fish for the bottom', were divisive, put individuals under enormous stress, and drove conditions ever downward.

That was bad for you if you worked at or wanted to work at NJS. It was also bad for the industry, because it was leading the race to the bottom. Where one operator goes, others will follow.

This dispute is mostly about getting fairness, consistency, and predictability back into the employment arrangements. It was about getting out of AWA and all the problems they caused, and into Certified Agreements like pilots at Qantas, VB, Jetstar, SkyWest, RFDS, Rex, etc etc etc. Independent research showed that workplaces that used AWA tended to have lower conditions and minimal wages growth, whereas workplaces that used Certified Agreements had higher productivity, more frequent and higher wage outcomes, better productivity, etc. It was about getting out of employment arrangements that work best for small to medium businesses in entrepreneurial situations and onto the correct employment arrangements for a large firm where large numbers of operational staff do similar, interchangeable tasks.

What was the use of having generous callout allowances if the company could simply choose to not pay them, or at worst delay them for months if the individual persisted with the claim? What was the use in having an entitlement to 8 days off at home base in any 28 days if the company could simply decide that it 'made no commercial sense' and refused to roster them? And the dispute resolution process was so weak that 'tricky' disputes could be left hanging for months, even years, because there was no time limit in which to have them resolved?

They were the reason that NJS pilots were fed up. It was about having decent rules, the same rules for everybody, and making them clear, easily understood, and enforceable. Since the pilot shortage came along, a few people revised their opinion and thought, hey now I want the money as well, lets add that to the list.

If blaster, etc are happy with their outcome, more money or whatever, then good for them. He will be happy with his extra x% but he may not acknowledge that he will also 'ride on the back' of the improved rostering and promotions protocols, gained by the company being forced to abandon AWA based protocols for more robust, section 327 and section 328 agreements. He also neglects to acknowledge that he made his gains in an environment where the company was on the back foot, and it was the push from the TWU and the pilot group that put the company on the back foot.

But getting back to Fixit's observation.... simply having an ECA on the table is remarkable. A Union CA would have been best. AWA to UCA would be like bush C402 to B787. Nice. AWA to ECA is more like C402 to B737. Not the big prize, but pretty good all the same. It puts NJS pilots on a far better legal footing, and sets the scene for many more improvements.

And in industry-wide terms, here is a group of Aussie pilots that successfully knocked down every stereotype their managers (and some pilots at other outfits) had about them. Here is a group of pilots that...

Got organised.
Researched the legislation.
Supported and encouraged individual pilots in pursuing claims of underpayment through the proper agencies.
Briefed in and mobilised government agencies such as the OWS to pursue breaches of the Act and call the company to account for breaches of employment regulations.
Kicked out a non-performing union and partnered up with an active and results oriented union.
Bypassed the middle managers who were part of the problem and directly engaged with the CEO and top level managers.
Ignored threats, implied and stated, about their current jobs and their future prospects.
Lobbied local, state and federal politicians with an interest in their constituency, an interest in workchoices, an interest in the health of the resources sector, or an interest in purchasing aerospace capability from the company.
Applied for protected industrial action.
Won the right to use protected industrial action.
Had everybody ready to engage in protected industrial action.
Didn't actually have to USE protected industrial action (in fact the hardest part is trying to STOP many pilots from taking protected industrial action now that the major gains are on the table, ready to grab.)

And it appears that we will get the most important thing we wanted -- proper rules and regulations at work.

Notable? You bet!

[The Mr Fixit]

ITCZ

Thanks for the informed reply I appreciate it, honestly

It's funny that backbone of a man resurfaces when you deprive him of his basic rights, seems some bald headed twerp found that out last weekend

I will say this
"If the pilots at NJS are happy with the deal, well done"

I just thought for once in my life I was going see pilots stick it to the man, ho hum I wait for next time