No, not us, but some of our colleaques in China! Saw this gem in the Australian yesterday, so it would seem that treating professional pilots badly is a world wide systematic management code of practise. Anyway, do you think that what is happening up north has any bearing on our operations here in aussie.
Quote-
Rowan Callick, China correspondent | April 17, 2008
CHINESE pilots staged an unprecedented strike last month, refusing to land at their scheduled destinations in a sign that the nation's professionals are increasingly willing to take industrial action for better wages and conditions.
The group of 21 pilots flew their passengers to their destinations and then returned without landing, each one citing bad weather.
China's pilots are emerging as the spearhead of the professional class's growing demand for a bigger share of the country's economic success.
As inflation ratchets up in China and labour constraints surface, white collar workers are starting to organise in informal ways outside the union structures that are run by the Government and the ruling Communist Party.
Reports have only now surfaced of how 21 pilots stunned China Eastern Airlines on March 31 by refusing to land their planes at scheduled destinations, instead returning to Kunming, the capital of south-western Yunnan province.
The action left some 1500 passengers stranded in Kunming.
The pilots are all employed by Yunnan Airlines, a subsidiary of China Eastern, in which a Singapore Airlines attempt to buy a minority stake was recently rejected.
They had earlier written an open letter to the airline's management demanding better conditions. They complained of being restricted to shorter routes and thus lower wages than colleagues in China Eastern, and of working unusually long hours. They are also unhappy about the level of tax levied on their overtime.
The company at first tried to hush up the incident, then admitted that poor management was partly to blame and sacked two executives.
China has 16 domestic carriers - all government-owned but based in different provinces and highly competitive.
About 40 flight crew with Shanghai Airlines also protested against their conditions by seeking sick leave on the same day in March, and 11 pilots at East Star Airlines based in Wuhan did the same.
Most of these pilots have since announced their resignations. But the companies are fighting back by claiming massive compensation in the courts.
This month, the East China branch of the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued a regulation that no airline could lose more than 1 per cent of its pilots annually. Any additional pilots who quit would be liable to pay their employer up to $324,000 compensation.
Following that decree, Eastern Airlines required its entire workforce on April 8 to pledge to "uphold professional values".
It is now seeking $1.9 million in compensation from Yunnan-based pilot Zheng Zhihong, the first to resign in the recent rash.
But the pilots are not without leverage. China's domestic tourism and business travel is expanding rapidly, and the CAAC has estimated the country will need a further 6500 pilots in the next two years. Fewer than 1000 are being trained annually.
