Dear Mr Walsh
I am writing today to apply for the part-time job of cabin crew.
This will probably come as a big a surprise to you as it was to my wife. "Don't be ridiculous" she said. "You are 61, retired and can barely boil an egg". Whilst she is right on at least two counts I still feel compelled to publicly put myself forward for this position and explain why.
There is a real chance that by the time this message gets to you the Unite union may have their mandate to call a BA cabin crew strike as it seems that despite losing two court cases they will not listen to the obvious reasons why they shouldn't. If they go ahead then you will, I am sure, do everything you can to minimise disruption to your passengers and operate a full schedule. This is where I come in. Despite maybe seeming rather absurd I feel compelled to offer even my services if it means playing a part in halting this militant union's self destructive action. Please allow me to explain why I feel so strongly.
Unless I am missing something you already pay your cabin crew more salary and allowances than competing airlines. Unless I am missing something else I understand that you have already come to agreements with other sections of your team (pilots etc) who have understood that you have to become competitive or suffer the likely consequences. Finally I believe your new package on offer has been amended after negotiation in order to make it far more palatable to existing staff who will still be better off than flying for Virgin and most other airlines.
Frankly I do not really understand why such a 'no brainer' of a deal is being rejected by the Unite union. To me it is because they are either naïve or have another agenda. Could it be that they see this as a means to go back to the old union 'glory days' of the Scargil era. I hope not but they already seem to be using some of the old terminology that most people hoped had been consigned to the history books.
Mr Walsh, please consider my offer and let me know if you need my c.v. I think you find I have rather a broad experience of flying going back 40 years or so and, despite what my wife says, I make a mean boiled egg! Call on me and I will be there and I expect many others would too.
Yours sincerely
Mike Platt
Former Managing Director of HRG UK
Good on you Mike, I'm positive that a lot of us feel the same way. The tragedy is that very few people younger than 40 don't even know who Scargill is/was! Even for that generation they think that Ted Heath was a bandleader (maybe he was and that's why it all went wrong)!
ReplyDeleteTried to join your blog community but couldn't make sense of it.
Colin B