This article appeared in the Today Paper. An interestingly candid piece :
No direct URL - just look at the last item...
Today Article
New leaders could still face old problems
Alpa-S chiefs will face members' ire if they reach an unpopular deal with SIA
Friday • December 5, 2003
I REFER to the move to amend the Trade Unions Act, which has a direct impact on how the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) operates.
Though its new leadership can negotiate as it pleases and deems fit with the management of Singapore Airlines (SIA), I believe it will still feel the wrath and displeasure of a majority of its member pilots, should it ink a deal which they do not agree to.
In other words, the facade may have changed, but the substance still remains. The new leaders would then realise that their positions and their daily work relationships still depend on the goodwill of their colleagues.
Would they not take on a confrontational position any way to safeguard their positions and prevent being voted out in an extraordinary general meeting or at the next annual general meeting; or worse, encounter an uncomfortable and cold work environment?
As long as the leaders are elected democratically, they know they have to answer to their members, as they do have to work with their electorate most of the time on a daily basis.
The tension between the pilots and SIA will not be resolved by changing a law. While I agree that any damage to SIA would damage Singapore's image, its economy and ultimately me, let us also see further ahead.
Are pilots all over the world so difficult to please? Are they literally high-fliers and high earners so their grievances are those of a spoilt child?
Or are their complaints worthy of consideration, because taken in the context of their irregular work hours, their situation cannot be compared to the usual eight-hour employee?
If this is not resolved, we will see the pilots bickering still and taking on SIA at every turn, whether it is a bad economy or for some other reason.
News will eventually go out, if it has not already, that pilots in Singapore are always unhappy with SIA and many foreign pilots may even get the impression that pilots in Singapore are treated badly. That cannot be good for SIA's image.
Even if in a lightning move, all SIA pilots are fired during a protracted dispute in a game of chicken, would other pilots — barring the desperate and inexperienced — knowing the existing deep-seated unhappiness, step voluntarily into the fire and take up the vacant jobs?
Will the image of SIA be that of a glamorous airline but a terrible and uncaring employer? Frankly, even to a Singaporean, it seems that way.
SIA's silence on how to deal with such unhappiness, that is if it wants to, is more damaging than the pilots' anger.