Old China Driver
10th Mar 2006, 05:52
PIGS AT THE TROUGH
How deep the layer of indignation? What of the ‘New Relationship’ between management and the AOA? How about the concept of ‘shared sacrifice for shared reward’?
I am sure that most of you are more than satisfied with the emotional satisfaction of knowing that (according to Mr. Chen) ‘we have put forth our best effort, and helped the company through a very difficult year’. Of course, we are all supposed to now pull up our socks and put forth that very same level of effort through the coming year.
Let’s consider that proposition for a moment. What has just transpired is the legal and blatant looting of the rightful rewards of the employees. Back in the late 80’s, the CX profit sharing scheme paid out upwards of almost 3 months several years in a row. Some of our more self-serving Swire management looked at that and reacted two ways. First, they were jealous of the fact that we were well paid as aircrew to begin with, and couldn’t stand the thought of us receiving even more compensation. Secondly, that same Swire management realized that if they could retain more profit within the company, their ‘Swire’ bonuses would be larger still. Why pay our millions of dollars to those greedy and spoiled CX aircrew, when, with a simple ‘realignment’ of the profit sharing formula, they managed to divert millions more to their own bonuses’ instead of the pilots bank accounts.
In case I have to spell it out, the dirty little secret at the heart of this airline is that the senior management actually doesn’t work for CX, and their incentives are based on what they can hold back from the aircrew. No other airline in the world has such a perverted structure, and it is the single most important reason why profit sharing has been the better part of a joke since the early 90’s.
Let’s be objective about what has just happened. The employees of this airline have dedicated themselves throughout this past year to assist the company in dealing with record high fuel prices, growing capital expenditures, and an ever more complicated and burdensome training task. The fact is that the company has just declared a ‘3.29’ BILLION DOLLAR profit. I am not sure what your own personal budgeting looks like, but in anyone’s mind this would qualify as slightly above subsistence.
Regardless of the ‘formula’, considering the dedication and application of the vast majority of aircrew to helping support the company, it is nothing less than an Abomination, Outrage and offence of common decency to not acknowledge each and every employee in a meaningful way. There is NO other profit sharing plan at a major airline that would not reward its employees handsomely with such a strong reported profit. In fact, Emirates, Singapore and other similar airlines are considering up to SIX months profit sharing for their staff.
Let’s now move on to more subtle matters. For the past 3 years of so, the AOA and the management have been helping to rebuild a ‘trusting’ relationship. The main purpose of this was to re-establish a more stable environment, allowing both parties to work ‘together’ towards a common goal. The settled issues have come thick and fast: Housing, Rostering, 49er’s, work rules, etc, etc. The supposed quid pro quo of this for the pilots was the anticipation that we would, management and labour alike, share in the success of the airline. I declare that we now know the value of the company’s commitment towards our sharing of the health and progress of the airline. I ask the AOA, how do you respond to this dismal slander of the aircrew group?
It is also interesting to note that for many years, management have claimed that a more ‘balanced’ salary scheme would be to keep salaries at a moderate level, but with the employees sharing in the profit to help ‘top-up’ the income when the performance of the company warranted it.
It is now sadly clear that for a company to declare a profit in the BILLIONS, but to not distribute a penny to the staff for whom this wonderful result would have not been possible, is to truly see the greed, mendacity and selfishness of our management laid bare. It effectively tells us that the Profit Sharing schem is in fact dead. The letter from Mr. Chen was remarkable in its complete dismissive ness of the desires and expectations of the thousands of loyal and hard working staff. There are many books written about ‘Man Management’. I believe that in NONE of them will you find an example such as this.
In closing, I could of course continue to dissect and analyse this appalling episode. I think it only necessary however to remind all the staff that just prior to the declaration of this impressive profit, and the hopes of the staff who perform such sacrifice each and every day to make it possible, the company’s main goal was to purchase and restore a DC-3 aircraft for static display. A gesture so obscene in its timing and content leaves most reasonable men speechless. There can be no greater example placed before us of the completely different ideas of the two groups. This will stand as one of the greatest insults yet delivered to the staff of CX. The only word that is appropriate to describe this behaviour is: SHAME.
OCD
:mad:
How deep the layer of indignation? What of the ‘New Relationship’ between management and the AOA? How about the concept of ‘shared sacrifice for shared reward’?
I am sure that most of you are more than satisfied with the emotional satisfaction of knowing that (according to Mr. Chen) ‘we have put forth our best effort, and helped the company through a very difficult year’. Of course, we are all supposed to now pull up our socks and put forth that very same level of effort through the coming year.
Let’s consider that proposition for a moment. What has just transpired is the legal and blatant looting of the rightful rewards of the employees. Back in the late 80’s, the CX profit sharing scheme paid out upwards of almost 3 months several years in a row. Some of our more self-serving Swire management looked at that and reacted two ways. First, they were jealous of the fact that we were well paid as aircrew to begin with, and couldn’t stand the thought of us receiving even more compensation. Secondly, that same Swire management realized that if they could retain more profit within the company, their ‘Swire’ bonuses would be larger still. Why pay our millions of dollars to those greedy and spoiled CX aircrew, when, with a simple ‘realignment’ of the profit sharing formula, they managed to divert millions more to their own bonuses’ instead of the pilots bank accounts.
In case I have to spell it out, the dirty little secret at the heart of this airline is that the senior management actually doesn’t work for CX, and their incentives are based on what they can hold back from the aircrew. No other airline in the world has such a perverted structure, and it is the single most important reason why profit sharing has been the better part of a joke since the early 90’s.
Let’s be objective about what has just happened. The employees of this airline have dedicated themselves throughout this past year to assist the company in dealing with record high fuel prices, growing capital expenditures, and an ever more complicated and burdensome training task. The fact is that the company has just declared a ‘3.29’ BILLION DOLLAR profit. I am not sure what your own personal budgeting looks like, but in anyone’s mind this would qualify as slightly above subsistence.
Regardless of the ‘formula’, considering the dedication and application of the vast majority of aircrew to helping support the company, it is nothing less than an Abomination, Outrage and offence of common decency to not acknowledge each and every employee in a meaningful way. There is NO other profit sharing plan at a major airline that would not reward its employees handsomely with such a strong reported profit. In fact, Emirates, Singapore and other similar airlines are considering up to SIX months profit sharing for their staff.
Let’s now move on to more subtle matters. For the past 3 years of so, the AOA and the management have been helping to rebuild a ‘trusting’ relationship. The main purpose of this was to re-establish a more stable environment, allowing both parties to work ‘together’ towards a common goal. The settled issues have come thick and fast: Housing, Rostering, 49er’s, work rules, etc, etc. The supposed quid pro quo of this for the pilots was the anticipation that we would, management and labour alike, share in the success of the airline. I declare that we now know the value of the company’s commitment towards our sharing of the health and progress of the airline. I ask the AOA, how do you respond to this dismal slander of the aircrew group?
It is also interesting to note that for many years, management have claimed that a more ‘balanced’ salary scheme would be to keep salaries at a moderate level, but with the employees sharing in the profit to help ‘top-up’ the income when the performance of the company warranted it.
It is now sadly clear that for a company to declare a profit in the BILLIONS, but to not distribute a penny to the staff for whom this wonderful result would have not been possible, is to truly see the greed, mendacity and selfishness of our management laid bare. It effectively tells us that the Profit Sharing schem is in fact dead. The letter from Mr. Chen was remarkable in its complete dismissive ness of the desires and expectations of the thousands of loyal and hard working staff. There are many books written about ‘Man Management’. I believe that in NONE of them will you find an example such as this.
In closing, I could of course continue to dissect and analyse this appalling episode. I think it only necessary however to remind all the staff that just prior to the declaration of this impressive profit, and the hopes of the staff who perform such sacrifice each and every day to make it possible, the company’s main goal was to purchase and restore a DC-3 aircraft for static display. A gesture so obscene in its timing and content leaves most reasonable men speechless. There can be no greater example placed before us of the completely different ideas of the two groups. This will stand as one of the greatest insults yet delivered to the staff of CX. The only word that is appropriate to describe this behaviour is: SHAME.
OCD
:mad: