The reason the HKAOA cannot find success is that they continue to alienate themselves by cutting out several different groups of potential supporters.
They refuse to let the ASL pilots join because they took their jobs away and are now considered "scabs" by many members. Many ASL pilots signed over to Cathay Freighters in Jan 2000 and gave up years of seniority among their own group to be with Cathay Pacific and they are still looked at as the black sheep. The newer Freighter pilots, although members of Cathay Pacific and on the same seniority list as all the other Cathay Pilots, are often referred to as ASL and not welcomed by many mainline pilots. And, now the new joiners have been called scabs.
I know many have left the HKAOA from the freighter division as they feel they are not supported or even welcomed by the other members. They could have almost 100% participation of the 1700+ workforce but because of their on going discrimination and favoritism they continue to lose members and blacklist others and probably have less than 60% representation at this time. It's a great little boys club for the Hong Kong based pilots but a credible union, I think not!
Of course this is IMHO. CPDUDE. . <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> <img src="frown.gif" border="0"> <img src="frown.gif" border="0">