AVIATION CLUB members in London welcomed a real Union man to their latest lunch at the Institute of Directors, Jim McAuslam, general secretary of the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) and formerly deputy general secretary of PCS, the UK's main civil and public services union. In the 18 months since his appointment Jim has quickly learnt about the common flight deck pastime of grumbling in crew rooms and hotels down route. He reminded guests of this reputation. ”Pilots have always moaned. They are never satisfied.” He noted the major challenges ahead which included making sure that there were enough pilots in the supply chain and dealing with age discrimination legislation due to come into force in 2006, for the first time allowing BA aircrew to soldier on to 60 (currently 55). BALPA employs 40 staff working on key issues such employment and aviation law, research, aviation safety, all weather operations, medical, air traffic control, aircraft design and accident investigation, scheduling and of course security. Personnel negotiate on terms, conditions and pensions. BALPA has communications and lobbying experts and deals with its overseas contemporaries many of which it helped to found. He started out by saying that without pilots there would be no airline industry. A union man through and through.
http://www.balpa.org.uk
http://www.aviationclub.org.uk