Death of Cathay
Death of cathay
Having made the cardinal mistake of squandering what little undeserved good will remained among it's pilots after many years of overt hostility and disregard shown to cathay pilots by it's extremely incompetent management group at all levels now when more than ever good will can make or break this not-an-airline entity which has been masquerading as an airline for many decades, good will is nowhere to be found. Outright hostility and disregard to cathay and it's fate is overwhelmingly present and on display by almost all. The number of rose colored glasses desperates are quickly dwindling too.
Instead of doing what every business organization does in times like these when it has lost a chunk of it's business, which is "RIGHT-SIZING" the work force to roughly match the amount of business remaining, they've done none of that with the pilot work force. After 9 months of paying majority of the pilots their salaries to stay at home not working at all, they've wrongly decided to cut the amount of money spent on pilot salaries by half, not by reducing the head count but by cutting everyone's pay by over 50%... permanently, without any attempt to discuss or negotiate, with the overt threat of dismissal and a mere 2 weeks to sign or be fired. Thinking wrongly that they could now keep the work force so when the business picks up they don't have to spend the cost of hiring and training newhires. Since we all know nobody would stay in hong kong (the most expensive city in the world to live in) without a paycheck while on layoff waiting to be recalled and having moved back to their home countries, not likely to spend the costs of moving again back to hk. Hence newhires. Even the cadets wouldn't come back having been released from their financial bond obligations since they could then take a job with any xyz express airline offering them some A320 FO position where they actually work as a pilot vs cx SO.
The hard learned lessons of how to handle a crisis like this which have been proven the hard way by others several times in the history od airline business has been lost on cathay management. Cathay being a so called airline run by a bunch of non-airline managers at all levels, has f-ed it up again.
Now more than ever they need the good will and sacrifice of the pilots (especially the pilots) and people aren't even listening. Everyone is in personal survival mode with no capacity left to give a sh!t about what management is asking or saying. Many are planning on how to deal with their fast approaching bankruptcies. Yes, many cathay pilots will be financially bankrupt soon if they can't find a job and leave ASAP. The mass exodus of cathay pilots will start in a major way as soon as the industry picks up and hiring starts again. There is nothing cathay can do at this point to stem the tide. No matter how much they raise the pay or benefits, nobody in the right mind will believe any of it. They've proven by legal precedence that the employment contract you sign with them (or any employment contract in hk for that matter) isn't worth the toilet paper you're signing it on. They could easily change it back on you in 6 months, a year or two or whenever they want in any way they want without your agreement or consent via putting the gun of dismissal to your head. And hong kong law is perfectly fine with that. You'd have to be mentally ill or extremely desperate to stay with cathay if any !!!!ty ass airline anywhere back home offers you a job. And we all know what kind of pilots mentally ill and desperate make.
Cathay Pacific's future pilot pool will have to be India, Philippines, Indonesia and similar. There's no way their tin can cadet program can supply the numbers they'll need.
Most likely they (swires) made this herendous miscalculation as part of a plan to sell and be out of here before 2 years and hence not caring what happens after that for the new owner (most likely Air China or similar). But this sh!t show will implode before that. Without employee good will and going the extra mile it can't last. Unfortunately for the mismanagement group, events are requiring more and more employee sacrifice and extra mile and good will, and there's nothing left. Cathay mis-management had no credibility for many years and now even less than that. A less charming, less competent, and less charismatic set of people couldn't have been at the top leadership positions at the worst possible time.
It's partly our own fault for allowing the over disregard and disrespect handed to us by this company to grow to this level from which there's no return. There's nothing they can or we can do now to reverse course. The death spiral began the moment cos18 was announced in late October. If you can jump with a parachute before impact, you'd be stupid not to. Some will jump even without a parachute as is the case in these situations.
The way to get respect and regard in the airline business is only one way and that's to hurt the company in the pocket book. This is a sad reality and many of you don't want to live in a world like this but truth and real history of this industry doesn't care about how you feel or what world you desire to live in. Our chance was when cc training ban etc could have made a real impact. When by refusing to take any directs or any fuel savings etc we could have made an impact. Yes you can cause a lot more impact by not striking and continuing to operate but doing your best to be inefficient. But it's all too late now. However what cathay pilots would not achieve due to lack of unity and ignorance of how pilots get better pay and benefits in this industry, cathay has managed to accomplish. I have never seen such a high level of inefficiency and lack of care in majority of our pilots than now. They're all doing all the things I mentioned above uniformly and without any organized or central agenda. Each and every individual is doing so partly because the more they cost in fuel and time the more money goes in their pockets and partly because they just don't give a sh!t anymore. And what's cathay going to do about it? Fire some so others fall in line? It's like executing some Crack addicts so the others stop using by fear. They won't even for one day. They'd have to execute all of them to stop it. For equally persistent reasons... financial survival in our case and also when bad will is earned it's damn near impossible to ever reverse it again.
This latest event of 14 day government hotel quarantine forced on the company by hk government is the perfect example of how keeping half the pilots on payroll but keeping them happy and at least hopeful for the time being would have been extremely helpful to cathay. Even now they don't realise where things are. These delusional mental midgets are offering to make it worth our personal health (mental & physical) by paying a daily amount less than one hour pay at our half paycut hourly pay rate... for each entire day of our lives wasted in a hotel room... JAILED... 14 days in a row, AFTER being on the road for 3 weeks also existing quarantined in either a hotel room, a van or an airplane! And they think this little measly amount is enough to buy our health., mental and physical. People are already breaking with the existing conditions. Good luck!
The death spiral is intensifying and there's nobody at the controls.
Last edited by VforVENDETTA; 12th April 2021 at 22:04.