bmi (industrial action vote)
 

bmi baby pilots to ballot for industrial action next week

bmi mainline / bmi regional pilots the week after

Interesting times indeed!

Any ideas what day(s?) a strike would be planned for bmibaby (if indeed thats what they voted for in the ballot) as I am due to fly on them on Thursday, so I'm hoping that (as I would guess) they would strike after that :)
Would be a bad start to our US holiday if it was Thursday though, though I seriously doubt it :}

The onnly information I have is a letter sent by the General Secretary of BALPA which would indicate Strike Action by mid to end August. Don't book with bmi baby if you are travelling then.

mme,

Nothing can possibly move that quickly. Ballot papers to be issued, votes cast, votes counted, action decided. Weeks away.

whats the dispute over, if no-one minds me asking? (non-pilot, non-spotter, interested by-stander :) )

The dispute is over - ERODING CONDITIONS AND OF COURSE ERODING FLIGHT PAY.
Without going into too much boring detail, this company's management have adopted a "don't give a sh*t stance". They have ceased to negotiate with balpa and started emposing conditions of pay which are completely unrealistic.
Pilots are now literally losing money since April, as the Inland Revenue have increased their taxation of sector pay. Negotiations were taking place between the management and the IR in a stealthy manner, despite opposition from balpa before April, the result of course is the above.
The management think they will get away with this by just burrying their heads in the sand.
Well - there's water under the sand and they are beginning to smell it!!!:ok:

one four sick

Ballot
 

I understand all 3 groups were balloted for initial feeling....all were in favour of action around the 96% margin. I gather talks have now broken down and its heading for action.

This year a pay rise was imposed by management with no improvement to the T's and C's and NO negotiation!!!??? What sort of an outfit operates in this manner? Flying Club behaviour.

They are underestimating ill feeling amongst the crews and believe support for action has been hyped by BALPA....IT HASN'T and it will bite them this time I feel unless they come to their senses.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a complete shame this is. I fly with Bmi a lot on the Heathrow - Edinburgh route and cannot praise the crew/service enough. In comparison to the rivals - and you know who you are - Bmi just simply cut the mustard. Shame on the management if they try to upset a well oiled machine. I work for a large TV broadcaster and we are in exactly the same position - professional work done by hard working folk totally taken for granted by the current management team. Good luck Bmi crew - try not to let it get you down.

Btw I would have been flight crew if my eyes hadn't been so bandy so have to make do with sitting out back!

timv
 

Timv,

hopefully common sense will win the day.....BALPA remains proud in that to date its never actually had to call the troops out yet...but there's always a first time....

Unfortunately those at board level in bmi seem to have forgotten the importance of dealing with the pilot workforce with respect reference their annual pay negotiations. This is most likely going to result in a strike ballot which will ultimately lead to notice of impending industrial action. I don't think Nigel & Tim are particularly experienced in this scenario and therefore may find that the damage caused could and most probably will, lead to their downfall. They're playing a very dangerous game if they want to continue their careers within bmi. Mr Bishop has been ruthless in the past with people who screw-up! I certainly wouldn't want to be a pilot manager either, the mis-management will ultimately threaten their positions as well. It's time for the pilots at bmi to stand-up and be counted or face further degradation of their conditions & pay.

Regards, The Count

I'd have to second this, I've flown BMI mainline and Baby (as pax) and I've been nothing but impressed with the level of service from flight and cabin crews and groundstaff alike and in the quality of the aircraft. You're all doing a great job from what I can see and its very sad when professionals feel they have to resort to strike action to make themselves heard to their 'management'. I hope you can resolve your dispute without detriment to yourselves, your pax and the airline, but sadly there's nearly always losers in these affairs... :uhoh:

bmi group strike ballot very likely this week.
 

Different issues in each of the three parts of the group - mainline, baby and regional.

But the common thread is the attitude and manner in which the bmi group has refused to negotiate with the pilots.

In mainline the main issue is the unilateral cancellation by bmi of the major part of the 2004 pay agreement which took place a few months ago.

That agreement hammered out over many months and ballotts in 2004, said that for 2006 a negotiated settlement would be arrived at following a survey of bmi pilots' packages versus those of other airlines.

That survey was carried out in 2005 but then in early 2006 bmi said that the whole process of settling the 2006 pay award was going to take too long and a modest group award was imposed on the pilots. End of story. Thank you for waiting for two years, go away and don't make a fuss about it.

At the same time there are many other issues in bmi mainline that fuel the present feeling of upset and annoyance -

Massive hikes in proposed pension contributions -from 10% to 18.5%, which are somewhat high by any measure.

A new rostering system which continually produces lates rosters and with the wrong nightstop preferences.

An abysmal off-airport staff car park and bus service and despite constant promises just gets worse. This wastes around 40mins every working day, extending the day and crucially is before official report and after official report - ie in so called "rest" time by CAA definition and is not "duty".

A nine year wait (at present) for a central car park pass. Central car parks are just a few minutes walk away.
(If you are a non-pilot working in a bmi ground service dept - cabin crew management/check-in etc you can get a central pass after a few years)

A lack of a promised 80% part time scheme (another part of the 2004 agreement forgotten about by bmi).

No new commands since 2001.

Promises of expansion and commands through long haul - " the engine of growth". Minimal expansion and only wet leased in capacity with denied promotions.

And to finish off - one recent example that sums up the whole bmi attitute to its staff nicely - in a new LHR crew room revamp they've taken away all the chairs for the pilots and cabin crew briefing areas and just left high tables to stand by and lean on.

No longer can you afford to sit down, digest, mull, discuss and plan your days multisector duty with your colleagues in a professional manner.

bmi - professional staff working for questionable management - who refuse to answer the questions.

upandoffmyside,

What a great post, says it all really, at least for mainline. - well said!

I have to agree, an excellent post. Highlights a lot of the current problems witin bmi, there are many more...

For Baby the major gripes are:

1. Imposition of group pay award (although management insists group pay awards don't occur!) no negotiation - just go away we can't be bothered with you :ouch:

2. Unilateral changes to the profit share scheme to the detriment of the pilots - this despite the fact that the profit share is defined in the 'Playground rules' and as such form part of our contract of employment :ouch:

3. Lastly and most painfully, they screwed up our arrangement with the IR regarding tax position of sector pay. The CC requested no increase in sector pay during the 04/05 pay round to protect the advantageous tax position we enjoyed - did management listen and respect that? of course not and they imposed a 3.2% increase on sector pay. Result was that the IR decided to review the sector pay and generously decided we could now expect only £5 tax free per day provided we completed 3 or more sectors :ouch: :ouch: :ouch:

Thus Baby pilots have actually experienced a reduction in take home pay thanks to management incompetence - about £2k for captains :ugh:
The Baby CC have tried to negotiate with the Company over this issue but have been stone walled by management. Remember this is still the 04/05 pay round that has to be resolved, something that should have been completed in April 2005 :ugh:
Baby pilot's patience has been exhausted and frankly we're up for the fight, expect a good ballot result and some disruption in August.

Bash the Bish takes on a new meaning :mad:

And the stand up tables in the crew room is a *^+$ ing stupid idea

edited for incompetence with a calculator!

Oh please tell me that you were only joking with this being one of the gripes of Bmi pliots ?.

Maybe the other 99% of LHR workers that have to park on the perimeter and take the bus should also go on strike too.

:rolleyes:

You and others like you miss the point every time. Pilots work to rigid regulations with respect to flight time limitations. I appreciate the fact that someone who works in an office at Heathrow would feel they have the same right to a central car park pass but you have to acknowledge that whilst we might work for the same company we also work in DIFFERENT professions of which 'being a pilot' has the greatest number of regulations. Your post perpetuates the myth that pilots think they are a 'special' case. They aren't and they don't. I would support any working group who have the bXXls to stand up to their management and say enough is enough. Unless you are one of them? you should support them to - you might need them on your side one day.

lhr car parking
 

It's clearly not a headline grabber in this dispute but it's a significant and long standing gripe along with the all the others that bmi refuse to do anything about.

The Magnatex (Car Park F) parking service is the worst at LHR. Its combination of distance and lack of frequent buses is unequalled at the airport. No other staff car park is served by only four buses per hour for large chunks of the day and six per hour for part of the day.

Many other staff car parks have buses at less than ten minute intervals and are closer.

No body's got a problem with perimeter car parks at all - there are some excellent ones at LHR, which in many respects with frequent buses are preferable to central area.

bmi refuse to recognise the negative impact this service has on the daily working lives of the staff. You have to be in Magnatex to really appreciate it.

I agree,with all the expected recruiting from other airlines in the winter I dont think anyone would be out of a job for to long.
Well put guys and I know some management read this and I really do hope we dont end up with industrial action as no one wins but if needs must, so fix it before it really gets broken.

P.S. and dont even get me started about the pension!:ugh: :ugh: :mad: :mad:

Rgds

K.I.L.

I'm a Kiwi SLF who has been travelling annually to Glasgow for the past 5 years or so. Air NZ to LHR and then BMI to Glasgow. January this year was my last time and I do mean my last time to ever use BMI.

I have never had a flight that was on time but I guess that is just the way at LHR. I have noticed a steady decline in staff attitude and one just got the feeling that not everything was well within the company - and that's just as an occassional pax.

Service and attitudes at Glasgow are or were just terrible.

Because my travel in January was at short notice the fare (LHR / GLA / LHR was horrific, the flights as usual were late and the killer for me was the fact that I was asked to pay for the tea or coffee!!

I knew at that point that BMI was stuffed and that a thread like this would only be a matter of time.

I agree that a company usually reflects its management and it would seem that BMI sadly is a glowing example of this.