A rule of thumb in all companies is that industrial relations problems are by definition the fault of management, whose job is to make sure the problems don’t arise in the first case. Cathay Pacific is run by a cadre of managers technically seconded from Swire, who thus should bear ultimate responsibility. Traditionally these guys have often had curiously similar backgrounds: obscure British boarding schools, often with a spell in the Army. The Swires’ policy has been to recruit more than is needed and then let them fight or grovel their way up the management ladder. One, I was once seriously told, had the psychological profile of a wife-beater. It was he who was the big softy who urged that the 100 or so pilots originally due to be fired 10 years back be halved in number. Which makes you wonder what the rest are like.
from here - classic :
Aviation corner « Big Lychee, Various Sectors