Singapore clips SIA union's wings

The Singapore government announced plans yesterday to clip the wings of the Singapore Airlines (SIA) pilots' union after denouncing the group as "confrontational" and a risk to the nation's economy.

Foreigners will be banned from the board of the Air Line Pilots' Association of Singapore (ALPA-S) and its members will no longer be allowed to instruct their leaders in disputes with management, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong's (吳國棟) office said in a statement.

The crackdown was announced after Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), the son of Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀), warned the union over the weekend not to "take on" the government.

Lee's comments followed a vote by ALPA-S members this month to sack their entire leadership over controversial wage cuts imposed by SIA to counter a slump caused by the SARS health crisis.

The ALPA-S has long been regarded as the most willing union in Singapore to challenge the government, which has kept a tight rein on industrial action through restrictive laws with just two days of strikes in the city-state since 1978.

"We cannot allow confrontational industrial relations to add to the problems of SIA, Changi Airport and our travel industry," the prime minister's office statement said to explain the crackdown. "It will put jobs and Singapore's economy at risk."

The statement described the relationship between SIA management and the ALPA-S as "troubled."

"They have had repeated episodes of protracted negotiations, many resulting in deadlock," it said, pointing to the members' ability to instruct their leaders in industrial disputes as a key reason.

The ALPA-S is the only union in Singapore with this right, which will be removed through ammendments to the Trade Union Act.

Two foreigners are currently allowed to sit on the ALPA-S's 22-member executive council but the changes will mean it has to be exclusively Singaporean.

Union officials told reporters just under half of the union's 1,600 members were foreigners from 40 countries.

The current controversy began in July when Singapore Airlines, which is majority owned by the government, pushed through wage cuts of 16.5 percent for pilots and 11 percent for first officers by 11 percent.