I thought the topic was "no pay leave"?
The current situation is more similar to the asian financial crisis then the SARS epidemic or 9/11 disaster, although on a different scale.
Back in the financial crisis a decade ago, we flew empty aircraft around for quite a while. Voluntary unpaid leave was offered and commonly taken by cockpit crew, cabin crew and ground staff. If you take less than a month off unpaid, you still get to receive your housing allowance! It is interesting, that voluntary unpaid leave has not even been advertised yet.
What followed the asian financial crisis was more concerning as a possible lesson for our immediate future.
1. The first event was the "night of the long knives" where numerous ground staff, including support staff in Flight Operations lost their jobs. This may have partly been associated with the move to CLK. Politically, I think it is now more difficult for CX to shed hundreds of ground/office staff these days. More likely, a future strategy would be another "new contract", to cut costs.
2. Next came a new contract for cabin crew (options 1-2-3), basically increasing their overtime threshold from 72 to 76 hours.This included a voluntary redundancy programe aimed at senior crew.
3. The pilots came last, with a new contract for "A scale" pilots where pay cuts were tied to share options. Voluntary redundancies also featured. This episode fermented dissent which grew into the 2001 dispute where ultimately individual pilots were fired, demoted or otherwise victimized and RP2001 was forced upon the remainder.
I am not too concerned with the prospect of an en-masse special leave programe in the immediate future, as per SARS in 2003.
The track record of our Management would suggest that they are currently busy planning our new contract.
