Compliant One. What you say is generally the history as told to me when I joined ASL. Clearly, we were all mindful of stealing guys jobs, so I am troubled by the phrase, "If ASL had not been formed then all the Freighter Companies would still be mainline seniority" Firstly, I think any employee of ASL who was previously employed by Air Hong Kong would take exception to what you say. Secondly, mangement was unswerving in their view that had the cost base not been reduced by inter alia the formation of ASL, Cathay would have sub-contacted the Freighters to another company and the crew positions would have been lost in any event. Now I don't expect for one second you believe that, but do you have evidence any contrary?
Compliant One, what is, "the attempt to by-pass their fellow pilots."?
Absolut Kuk; You seem to be suggesting that the Chief pilot is changing our G days into Reserve Days. The Chief pilot is, I believe, a Cathay employee, and has very little to do with rostering. What has changed is that our O days are being replaced with Reserve. Presently, it's not too arduous as we can do reserve from the end of the phone anywhere in the world and only for a set time period and not the whole day as under the O day system. Further, it avoids the nasty situation of having your card marked by management for not answering your phone on an O day and having your house burnt down by the AOA if you do.
Resistance, you say," I can certainly assure you that none of us will EVER accept flying with a Captain who is wearing those stripes out of seniority, and who is illegimate in the eyes of 1200 Cx pilots." Your assurance is a bit hollow when I exclude from the "none";
1. Those FOs who volunteered for a CXF temp base in LON, and
2. All those FOs and SOs who regularly fly with ASL and ex-ASL CNs on the 400F, and
3. The dozen on so FOs who received command upgrade training on the Freighter from ASL and ex-ASL trainers, and
4. The long queue of FOs outside DR's door lodging applications for a Freighter Command on base, and,
5. All the guys and gals who sat next to ex-ASL CNs who received conversion training on the 400 pax aircraft.
Healey, you can think what you like mate, but both the Company and the AOA say my FO position on base is rightfully mine and I have a CX seniority number and a CoS to prove it.
To us all, this may be a jolly fine waste of a few moments before crew-in, however on the Cargo Flight line in HKG is a Southern Air 747F on a long Wet Lease to fly Cathay Scheduled Freight services. That lease represents 8 base Commands and 8 JFO upgrades and 8 ex-CX FEs that were not re-employed. What did we say about it, what pressure did we put upon the company to make it a dry lease?- nothing!