Virgin Crew Pay Ballots

To strike and knowingly affect families, children, business people etc. will produce its own knock-on effects. I for one will not fly VAA again if I am in any way impacted by any form of industrial action. There are several other airlines who'll do a pretty good job for my travel reqt' - (and no I'm not including BA in this group )

You choose who you work for, and take the deal that comes with it. In the commercial free market, if you don't like it, don't impact innocent third parties - change jobs like the rest of us do if we don't like our T's and C's. This isn't a communist state - if you want to move to another employer you can .

Hope the press don't read this thread, they would have a field day over it.

I'm not in a union, but I understand they are useful when it comes to collective pay bargaining.

VS staff have not accepted a pay deal; whilst this means a strike is possible it's not yet inevitable. VS have never been on strike, so lets hope discussions commence and a compromise reached, VS know what strike action would mean; given the recent BA situation.

[Decker]

Well in theory I'd have to defend the right to strike. The withdrawal of labour is sometimes the only negotiating tool left. Naturally this must be taken in the context it is found in and it is down to individual crew to assess their situation and decide whether the potential damage to the airline and their own livelihood is outweighed by their grievance. Tough call in a public facing role. Despite their best efforts the TGWU didn't do too well at engendering sympathy (despite some fairly blatant appeals from the pulpit) from those whose travel plans they ruined by wildcat strikes.

As an observation the public normally seem to have a lot more sympathy for "Working to rule". I don't know if this would have any direct applicablility to the current situation.

Either way, like the rest of the mods, I would caution balance and restraint on this topic.

VS Lover I don't under estimate for one moment what you have to contend with on the ground and I have the maximum respect for you guys. However don't forget once you have finished with the difficult ones three guess who gets them next, yes cabin crew. If you have been crew then you will know that people don't become any nicer just because they have boarded a plane. I have in fact done a day at the airport for familirisation purposes so I do empathise with the situations you have to deal with.

Basically I love my job, I have been here 9 years and I really don't want to even consider leaving as sad but true the job is a large part of my life and brings me a great deal of happiness. I don't have a flash life by any means, a one bedroom flat in the south east, no car and a fair to average social life . I don't think I am being greedy but I am a manager for Virgin and do feel like I should be paid accordingly. When people reply with "if you don't like it leave" it gives me a lump in my throat, is that all I can do? consider leaving? But I love it at Virgin and I don't want to leave so I am going to reject the pay deal and do what I can to improve my terms and conditions. As I have said before I don't want anything major, just to be paid for what I am worth that also reflects the length of service and performance levels I have given the company.

For me strike action is something that I am not even considering, I really hope that the company can at least come back with a realistic offer that works. If they don't then maybe I do have to consider leaving, but that would be a loss to Virgin too. The 1000 that are waiting in the wings will not have my experience and personality!

Negotiation is the answer, strike is definitely not. I am confident that Virgin will have learnt from BA's events over the last 10 days. Fingers crossed I could do with a new Mulberry handbag...JOKE!!

Southernbelle that is very eloquently put

Originally posted by VS_Lover

Originally posted by virgin is the best

Originally posted by VS_Lover
Uh i say this to every staff member regardless of what airline you work for

YOU KNOW WHAT YOU WERE GETTING PAID WHEN YOU SIGNED THE CONTRACT

Yes we did. However things go up in price. Petrol,Rent,Council Tax, and the rest of everything we use on a day to day basis. Thats why we want a decent pay rise. All I can say is STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE

For the crew that do strike i invite them down to the airports to see what the ground staff will have to put up with - most of the crew would not last five seconds on the ground in terms of being on the front line face to face with customers.



If the crew are that unhappy i say leave. Only you wont because you love the concessions and the kudos of saying you work for Virgin. My Easyjet buddy earns more as crew than Virgin crew yet i doubt half those wanting to go on strike would work for them as they have too much pride.

FYI I am looking for a new job but this takes time. I also used to work on the ground in the Airport so I do know what its like. Crew are also front line staff. Only we cant escape customers when they start shouting. We are with them the full flight.

[Bazz]

Originally posted by southernbelle
...Negotiation is the answer, strike is definitely not. I am confident that Virgin will have learnt from BA's events over the last 10 days...

Let us all hope you are right Southernbelle, common sense needs to prevail on both sides and VS management must understand the strength of feeling within the Cabin Crew ranks, if they don't compromise, it will become very painful for all parties involved, staff, management and pax.

Heaven forbid that people of the calibre of Southernbelle end up leaving VS, ...and I have flown with her and experienced her professionalism and sense of fun, typical of what makes VS great and not the sort of person you want to leave.

[fozzyo]

The 1000 that are waiting in the wings will not have my experience and personality!

This is what VS have to try and avoid. A high staff turnover is never good for a company, particularly a service based company like an airline. Yes there may be 1000 people waiting in the wings to come and take a vacant job, and after a year or so they may become fedup with the pay and conditions and leave. But thats not a problem, there are 1000 people waiting for that job. Repeat until VS sort out conditions and morale. That can only ever be a downward spiral.

Long haul premium airline crew wanting similar pay to short / medium haul budget airline crew - now that doesn't seem particularly greedy or selfish to me.

Foz xxx

the problem for all airlines, and in many other buisnesses is that as a country, we want high wages but lower spending costs.

The wage bill must be a pretty high percentage of Virgins day to day running costs, and as "punters" want to pay the least amount for their flights, they cannot make up the increase in running costs through increased air fares.
Therefore the only other thing to do is make cost cuts in other parts of the service.
So it might well be higher wages=less enhancements to the actual flight.

Don't forget they are under pressure with fuel charges, more competition in terms of airlines such as FCA giving enhanced services (with less staff costs perhaps?) and BA who will need to get "punters" back after their debacle.

[fozzyo]

And of course the majority of us here are outsiders to the company and so don't really have a full understanding of what is going on.

Foz xxx

"As an observation the public normally seem to have a lot more sympathy for "Working to rule". I don't know if this would have any direct applicablility to the current situation."

Maybe the cabin crew should work to rule all the time then perhaps the service inconsistencies would vanish overnight!

Ooops .... [B)]

John