Qantas pilots and the new PA announcements

[Noob]

I think people need to put themselves in the pilots shoes!

 

[simongr]

Put ourselves in the Pilots' shoes? I am sorry but if I have a beef with my employer I do not take it out on my customers or feel the need to vent my frustrations with my customers. I think perhaps the pilots should look to non-unionised workers rather than non-unionised workers look to them.

 

[UP4014]

Put ourselves in the Pilots' shoes? I am sorry but if I have a beef with my employer I do not take it out on my customers or feel the need to vent my frustrations with my customers. I think perhaps the pilots should look to non-unionised workers rather than non-unionised workers look to them.

Respectfully simongr, you may not do it this way however that does not make other ways wrong. :-|

Matt

 

[simongr]

I think any action that you take to further your own interests that has an impact on a person not involved in the action is wrong - this applies equally to unions marching in the streets (leading to roads being blocked and police being employed to manage the marches rather than tackling crime), barricades at ports and this relatively minor action.

 

[drron]

Respectfully simongr, you may not do it this way however that does not make other ways wrong. :-|

Matt

Then again if the pax on the plane dont like it it is wrong and wont help their cause.

 

[rechoboam]

I think people need to put themselves in the pilots shoes!

Do you want me to start venting my work-related frustrations here? Maybe I could start a thread discussing my problems? Can I have the PA after the pilots to talk about my problems? If the answer is no then they shouldn't use it either.

 

[N860CR]

The QF pilots are in a very difficult positon and one that is fairly unique to aviation. The other problem they have is "Joe public" has a very very misguided and incorrect view on the pay and lifestyle of the average pilot. This isn't assisted by an article I read on news.com.au that announced something along the lines of QF pilots "soaring" to their $500k pay cheque. A statement from Qantas in that article went on to say the "average" B747 Captain is paid $350k and A380 $500k which is nothing more than a total lie. Qantas are also announcing that the pilots want to be given an extra "first class ticket to anywhere in the world" (which again is not correct) and they're adding the cost of a full price ticket to the "pilot's claims" in the media.

Pilots are not very well paid given the amount of money that goes into their training. A first year pilot would spend in the region of $60-100K on their training (varies quite a lot, but it's all out of their own pocket - no HECS here) to be paid an award of about $30K if they're lucky, but most are on dodgy "contractor" schemes that see them take home probably about $15K in the first few years. These massive figures the media is reporting (and that the public thinks is commonplace) are very very rare and only occur after decades of work.

While I'm not fully up to date with the complaints of the pilots, I believe their biggest concern is the offshoring of their jobs and also the disgusting pay rates that are applying to these offshore companies. Jetstar have recently started recruiting for A320 First Officers who will be paid by Jetstar NZ (but working Australian domestic routes). The package on offer is about $50K Australian all up with no super! I believe the QF pilots fear that the current mangement will simpy offload all of their jobs to a cheap, low wages country (Malaysia is looking good) and pay in Ringets maybe 25-50% of the current pays. What do you get when you pay peanuts? And they'll be flying our "Australian" planes. I'm sure "Joe Public" would maybe be a little more sympathetic if they understood this and one of the few ways the pilots can address this is over the PA. Good luck to them I say.

 

[Robert K]

Pilots are not very well paid given the amount of money that goes into their training. A first year pilot would spend in the region of $60-100K on their training (varies quite a lot, but it's all out of their own pocket - no HECS here) to be paid an award of about $30K if they're lucky, but most are on dodgy "contractor" schemes that see them take home probably about $15K in the first few years. These massive figures the media is reporting (and that the public thinks is commonplace) are very very rare and only occur after decades of work..

You'd have to wonder why people get into the industry if you need to go in so much debt to make so little money.

 

[Smackbum]

You'd have to wonder why people get into the industry if you need to go in so much debt to make so little money.

It's

Not much different to becoming a doctor - a lot of debt and hard work up front to (hopefully) reap the rewards later. Only now Qantas wants to take those rewards away from their staff.

Would you be happy if your local hospital sacked all the specialists and imported cheap medical staff from third-world countries, whilst charging the same for their services? Maybe that's capitalism at its purest, and so there will be plenty of people here who champion the cause. I, for one, think that off-shoring such a critical aspect of their brand is suicide for Qantas.

And I am amazed by the people who say that the pilots should be inconveniencing Qantas not the passengers. That is exactly what they are trying to do and if you have better ideas about how to achieve that then I'm sure the pilots would love to hear from you. In the end the employees' one major weapon is to withdraw their labour, which of course will have an impact. If and when this occurs the intelligent and reasonable amongst us will examine all the facts to see what proportion of blame should be sheeted home to Qantas management.

The others will scream about 'Union Bosses' and the like, and contribute nothing whatsoever to the debate.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Pilots have a sole purpose on the aircraft and that is as a safety professional.

Their job is not to do anything else but that. period.

There are other avenues they can use for their political purposes - taking out pages in national newspapers for example.

 

[rechoboam]

The union has called for pilots flying on Qantas affiliates such as Jetstar and New Zealand-based subsidiary Jetconnect, to receive the same wages and conditions as Qantas pilots.
Otherwise, Qantas should remove its QF airline code from those flights.

Read more: Qantas pilots begin making unauthorised announcements

----

Something I agree with. Why does a J* flight have a QF number? That doesn't help anyone least of all the premium airline.
​

 

[Robert K]

The union has called for pilots flying on Qantas affiliates such as Jetstar and New Zealand-based subsidiary Jetconnect, to receive the same wages and conditions as Qantas pilots.
Otherwise, Qantas should remove its QF airline code from those flights.

Read more: Qantas pilots begin making unauthorised announcements

----

Something I agree with. Why does a J* flight have a QF number? That doesn't help anyone least of all the premium airline.
​

Maybe qf should give all the qf pilots a pay cut to bring them into line with the other pilots.

 

[Sprucegoose]

Wouldn't make a difference if qantas closed shop tho.

I simply can't imagine Qantas closing shop, too big too political

 

[ftm]

Has anyone heard the PA's yet? Is all the outrage expressed earlier in the thread justified?

 

[oz74]

Well with a recent trip to the USA coming up, I would rather an announcement than a full blown pilot's strike.

I agree! My girlfriend and I are in exactly the same boat. Getting married in las vegas in a little over a week last thing we need is for qantas to strike. However if they strike while we are in Maui I could live with that

 

[yohy?!]

No PAs on my 4 QF sectors yesterday, the pilots did seem a bit less enthusiatic though - only doing the bare minimum in PAs (although that could just be the standard gruelling day's flying).

 

[oz_mark]

No PAs on my 4 QF sectors yesterday, the pilots did seem a bit less enthusiatic though - only doing the bare minimum in PAs (although that could just be the standard gruelling day's flying).

My understanding was that it was the long haul pilots that were making the PA announcements.

 

[Timtammi]

Well i flew QF7 to Dallas on Friday (doesn't get much more long haul than that) and there were no special PA announcements that I heard. The captain did make some comment about the flight crew having something like 120+ years flying experience amongst them.

I'm currently sitting in my room at the Joule hotel in Dallas. Would highly recommend the hotel for anyone stopping here but boy it is brutally hot here!

cheers

Timmi

 

[VHOEJ]

I was on a Brisbane to Sydney flight last night and they did it. I thought it was only long haul pilots..........

But I just shrugged my shoulders - it was basically a plug for a website. Not that signing up to 'show support' will change anything.

 

[LiamR]

If anybody hasen't seen it, Plane Talking has a transcript of what the Pilots are saying.

Qantas pilots release their special message to passengers | Plane Talking

Ladies and gentlemen, this is (insert rank and name), together with (all participating crew) may I briefly have your attention.
On behalf of all Qantas pilots we would like to thank you for choosing to fly with Qantas.
We are proud of our profession and our airline and trust you will support us in keeping Qantas pilots in Qantas aircraft and ensuring our great iconic airline remains uniquely Australian.
For more information and to register your support, please make your next destination qantaspilots.com.au.
Thank you.