Originally Posted by
PushRed
No hiding that CX conditions have historically been well above the industry average. But to place the blame for lowering conditions at the door of HKA/HKE is a bit rich. If your unions had even the slightest backbone you could/should have fought back internally rather than look to blame others and whinge about it on PPRuNe. Time to look in the mirror and pull your finger out....get your own house in order before spreading your CX toxicity this way.
When your competitor's pilots make half of what you do there are some economic realities. HKA/HKE have been a proving ground that HKG is sustainable for pilots on relatively low paying contracts and they and their families will make do. Pilots from countries or carriers that have low wages have seen as HKG as a boon for their own financial opportunity. One Malaysian Lion Air pilot said to me recently, when I warned of the costs of living in HKG, that the wages were astonishing for people from Malaysia. This explains the recruitment drive for HKG ATC in Malaysia recently where the wage offering was 60K a month. Globalisation at its finest.
Top HR executives curvetting about the HK Country Club have stated there is no reason to pay pilots high wages anymore. When I ask for a pay rise this year I will be told my competitors paid 50% + less than I am. I will fire back at my boss that the wage differential is even more dramatic at a managerial level but that's good for retort only. When you ask me to pull my finger out can I ask you how many wage increases have you won since arriving in HKG?
Some of the preceding posts of unions unifying pilots are warm and idealistic. They've missed the paradigm shift. To defend against globalisation and the dumping of low cost pilots and their driving down of conditions of service has no simple answers or solutions. I'd suggest the defence starts with professional standards. There's a stress to high standards that cheap pilots don't always like.
CX and KA have a contract offer now on par with a struggling HKA/ HKE. Coincidental? They are actually some way along in the ability to remove traditionally high standards out of their supply and demand equation. KA was a proving ground for cadet to captain in 5 years - there's not much left in the puzzle.