"Let's get this airline back to how it used to be -- the best airline in the world to work for and the best airline in the world for passengers to fly on."
These are the words John Findlay, the general secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, spoke yesterday after announcing that Cathay Pacific pilots had agreed to step up industrial action in their long-running dispute with management.
PHOTO: AFP
Taking his words at face value, it would seem Findlay shares a common goal with management. That being to work for the future success of Cathay Pacific.
PHOTO: AFP
However, the routes each side in this dispute believes the airline should take to reach this goal couldn't be further apart.
To the pilots, it is a route which involves improving industrial relations, pay raises of up to 32 percent and a new roster system to replace the current one they claim is unworkable.
For Cathay Pacific, getting there can only be achieved by retaining competitiveness in the face of an economic downturn and that means standing firm against the union and its "unreasonable" pay demand.
With the two sides very much deadlocked, it looks like Cathay Pacific is going only one direction at the moment -- nowhere.
So how did Hong Kong's flagship carrier, one of the world's most profitable airlines, find itself at daggers drawn with its pilots.
Squabbles between the pilots and management over money are not new and have become a regular event over the past ten years. It is something the Hong Kong public has come to expect.
But this dispute is not about money, say the union leaders. It's about working conditions or more precisely a roster system which relies heavily on standby duties which disrupt pilot's lives and often leaves them not knowing which flight they are taking charge of until they reach the airport.
"These rosters are not working and haven't worked since they were last forced on the pilots in 1994," said John Findlay. "They are just chaotic, there are scheduling problems because of them and the pilots' lives are disrupted considerably."
The two sides have held more than 50 meetings to try to solve their differences. In June, the labor department moved as mediator but to no avail and the pilots voted for industrial action. The gauntlet was off.
On July 3, when the management failed to respond to a deadline issued by the union for data on the rosters, the pilots began their "work to rule" attempting to disrupt flights by paying meticulous attention to safety regulations and procedures.
The result has been successful to a degree -- about 26 flights a week were cancelled in the first month of the action. Many more have been delayed.
Cathay responded by chartering aircraft from China and by dropping some of its less profitable destinations. A week into the strike, they sacked 49 pilots and imposed a new pay and conditions package on pilots which give pay rises of up to 9 percent -- well below the 32 percent demanded.
By last week, all of the chartered planes had been returned. Cathay declared disruptions "effectively over" calling the "work to rule" nothing more than a "minor nuisance."
But for all its defiant words, the airline is suffering and suffering at a time when it cannot afford to lose money or lose face.
The economic slow-down has already eaten into profits which were down 40 percent in the first six months of 2001.
Disruptions caused by the action cost Cathay Pacific US$45 million in the first six weeks and figures released for July show that the passenger load was down 22 percent on last year -- a clear sign that passenger confidence has took a nose dive.
Last week, the pilots introduced a new weapon -- sickness. Last Wednesday, 125 pilots produced sick notes followed by 150 on Thursday and 163 on Friday -- almost three times the normal sickness rate and 20 percent of the number of pilots normally on the duty roster. The union has denied orchestrating a "sick-out" but the effect has given their disruption campaign a boost, causing up to six flight cancellations a day.
To the spectators following this fight, it's difficult to imagine how it will end or even how the deadlock will ever be lifted. Captain Dennis Dolan, first vice president of the International Federation of Airline Pilots, says getting both sides back to the negotiating table would be a start.
Dolan tried and failed when he recently visited Hong Kong at the invitation of the pilots.
"The way the rest of the world sees it, this is a straight union-busting attempt by the management and we will not tolerate it," said Dolan during his short visit.
The management views the intervention by Dolan and other pilot's unions as an attempt to boost worldwide union power.
"We won't give in to their demands," said Cathay Pacific spokesman Tony Tyler. "We are absolutely resolute. They started this fight and it is up to them to finish it."
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