Ding Ding

Well on points, the first round has gone to Civil Air. There were certainly no knock-out blows landed.

The employer postulated about all the reasons why a 'bloody good pay rise' would not be forthcoming unless 'trade offs' were utilised to increase the productivity.

We have seen speculation that a cap on sick leave is absolutely required and that PORs are an unreasonable restriction on our business.

But most interesting of all is that despite the first meeting being 3+ weeks late, the employer isn't in a position to make an offer yet, because they don't know what their staff want!

Well we say, why the hell don't you know that?

We have more managers than ever in an effort to increase communication (see justification for ALM structure) yet now we are all (both ways) less informed than ever.

The employer has advised that crucial information will be included in the WAYPOINT 2008 presentation; of which a copy will be provided after the event. 

WAYPOINT 2008 is where they announce to industry what the 5 year charging plan will be.  This is what they will then use to justify their inability to open up the purse strings and reach inside; because they will be returning all but a modest profit back to the industry.  And they will clearly factor in a modest ATC wages growth that will be 'locked in' after this announcement.  Therefore in their minds the only other way to get more money in your pocket will be to surrender your valuable conditions (which hamper their business) for that extra productivity.

MARK OUR WORDS, we won't be getting a 'bloody good pay rise' unless we fight for it.

We are particularly interested in the commentary of "FOCUS GROUPS" these have been referred to in the past as "FUCK US GROUPS" and rightly so.  These are utilised to justify that Civil Air doesn't represent the views of the membership.  They are about dividing and conquering.

Despite the explanations that Civil Air has 90%+ coverage of ATCs; they still think that Civil Air is the voice of the vocal minority and everyone else is either a sheep or too afraid to stand-up to the national executive (or individual members of it).  

Thus the logic, we have a right to talk to our staff and when we do we find they don't reflect the same views that Civil Air puts to us; thus we can't trust anything that Civil Air says because they don't represent their members.

From our reading of events; this meeting was about getting beyond WAYPOINT 2008 without making any commitments and then being able to say, "well this is what we have told industry and the ACCC has approved it sorry that's all we can do also this is in line with Federal Government Bargaining Framework".

Hell they have stated that they won't be able to make us an offer for 4 or 5 weeks, that's two months after the meetings were supposed to start.  Its about getting beyond a time when the figures are "locked in".

What can you do to help bring things to ahead?  Spread the word that the employer has shown clear signals of not being prepared to bargain in good faith again.  Spread the word about this blog.

Then ask yourself "Do I enjoy my days off?"