OPEN LETTER
Here is the transcript of the Open letter to the Swiss management:
Open letter to the Board of Directors and Management of Swiss
We, the undersigned Saab pilots from Basle, hereby strongly protest against the further intentions of Swiss’s Management to lay off staff.
We, the Saab pilots, are extremely annoyed with a Board and a Management expecting us to fully maintain Swiss’s Basle operations – despite the fact it has submitted us a de facto dismissal months ago.
We can no longer bear superiors who are continuously and endlessly expecting us to act professionally in our cockpits but to set aside our daily frustrations at the company’s no-culture at the same time. Reality looks completely different: The number one topics in the cockpit are our anger and our fears about personal future ¬– topics which are constantly present and dominate our cockpit discussions!
We, the Saab pilots, can no longer accept the company’s Operational Safety Manager, as he seems to be adequate for «nice weather flights» only. If he took his work seriously and indeed cared about flight safety, then he would either do his best to terminate the current farce or – as the only alternative – he would resign.
We, the Saab pilots, no longer wish to receive company newsletters encouraging us to accept the situation before being laid off in autumn. One of the greatest annoyance are the continuous tales in these letters with the aim of keeping us quiet until we receive our dismissal! What we want are prospects for a positive future! According to the political mandate (i.e. a new Swiss airline based on Crossair’s economical structures), WE are Swiss! We demand work in our company and not a sum in compensation for the loss of our jobs!
We, the Saab pilots, request that any forthcoming risks of lay-offs finally be shared equally among both pilots groups (former Swissair/Crossair)! Furthermore, we demand that the agreement concluded with Board Member Bosch be put into practice consistently. In summer 2003 he urged us to agree to the dismissal of more than 50 percent of the former Crossair pilots by promising to apply the so-called zipper model (dismissals within the Swissair/Crossair pilots’ group proportional to their size) in the event of further dismissals. If Bosch cannot commit himself to his signature (the agreed course of action), we suggest that he puts his position in the Board at someone else’s disposal.
We, the Saab pilots, do not want to be abused as a form of pressure for the forthcoming negotiations regarding the new general contracts of employment. For months we have been told how unprofitable Swiss’s Basle operations are. Do WE now have to pay the price of the mismanagement caused by the Management and the Board of Directors?
We, the Saab pilots from Basle, clearly state the following: We will never accept to being disposed of that easily! Do the tax payers, who have already been cheated, finally have to pay for our unemployment money as well, in order to sell Swiss to Lufthansa even cheaper? We firmly request clear decisions from the Board of Directors and the Management – decisions that uncompromisingly reflect the written commitments made by Mr Bosch!
We are aware: It is extremely embarrassing that we have to use this kind of clear wording and have to sue our own company once more. It is a pity that Swiss’s management apparently only understands clear messages. We are simply no longer willing to accept this kind of unethical arrogance – an arrogance event trying to flout court decisions and legal contracts!
To date the undersigned are still employees of Swiss and wish to be treated and respected a such! Without any clear signals from your side, we shall make all efforts to lead Lufthansa to withdraw from the contract by claiming damages between ten and hundreds of millions Swiss Francs from Swiss.
WE THE SAAB PILOTS FROM BASLE ARE SWISS