Part 4
Replacement Workers
Our current challenge, as individuals, is to prevent our union from behaving like management. Practically, it means that we have, to date, resisted taking any action against the pilots who have been employed to replace our 49ers. Just because management chose to victimize 62 union pilots and their families, we must do all we can to resolve the issue before resorting to action against individuals, too.
However, the code of “turning the other cheek” can only last so long. Management openly acknowledged that sacking 49 pilots in one day, in a misguided attempt to break our union, was a mistake. It is one thing to recognize an error and another thing to correct it. We had to give management every reasonable opportunity to choose the correct path. Nonetheless, there will come a time when management will have to be held accountable for not yet resolving The 49er issue. That time is rapidly approaching.
Assessment
At the December EGM, your Committee gave a formal presentation that summarised the last 9 years in Cathay Pacific Airways. It concluded that:
• The Association remains under attack
• The Members remain under attack
• The contract remains under attack
Since then, management have rebuffed reasonable appeals to discuss legitimate Flight Safety concerns and tried to oust your elected Committee, one 49er has died and yet more pilots have been prevented from their rightful Command in Seniority order.
The General Committee assesses that management’s union-bust attempt continues unabated, and the pilot profession in Hong Kong has never been in greater danger.
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Conclusion
Your Association is founded on the objective of safeguarding its members and their families. The most basic aim of that objective is protecting a member’s employment. That aim comes before improvements to our own contracts and benefits and every other aspect of union activity. Though this dispute has disrupted all of our lives for some time, that objective must come before the goal of industrial peace. We must protect the employment of every individual member above all else. As a union, there can be no other way.
Each and every one of The 49ers was targeted to intimidate you in an attempt to bust your union, your contract and your career. Not one of The 49ers was fairly dismissed. Let me repeat that and I urge you to think about that for a moment – not one of The 49ers was fairly dismissed. Furthermore, none of the demoted or recategorised pilots received natural justice, as required by our CoS. Some had spoken up more than others, some had challenged an autocratic management more than others, some were apparently random, but not one was fairly dismissed or punished. If any of them had breached their contract, there is an established DGP to be followed. That procedure was blatantly avoided and as a Union, we have absolutely no choice but to seek fair process and fight for the protection of all of our members.
If we decide that it is okay to sacrifice this pilot or that pilot to end the dispute, then our actions are worse than the management that sacked them in the first place - because we have committed to defend them and their families. If we assess individual 49ers based on our personal opinions or hearsay, we are no different than those who sat around the table and chose whose lives to destroy. To be judge and jury on the lives of families, whom we barely know and without evidence, is to claim the lowest rung on the ladder of ethics and morals.
We have all heard the rhetoric from management why they cannot possibly reinstate all the sacked, demoted and recategorised aircrew. That is all it is – rhetoric. There is absolutely nothing stopping management from implementing reinstatement or initiating an agreed fair process. If they can reinstate one 49er they can reinstate all 49ers. Management can no more ask us to give up 49ers than we can ask them to give up airplanes. Sacrificing a single member for the sake of temporary industrial peace goes completely against the basic tenets of Unionism. It cannot, must not and will not be forsaken – not by your president, not by your committee, not by your negotiators, and not by you.
What we can do is continue to seek a creative way out of this debacle. If management can reach agreement with some 49ers that are willing to accept a financial compensation package, we will certainly not stand in the way. It is possible that a handful of 49ers may not be able to face coming back. It was certainly management’s plan to discourage all 49ers from wanting to return, and was the reason they were so poorly treated, even after their dismissal. That plan seems to have failed, however, and nearly every 49er I have spoken to is keen to return to the career he earned and loved. For those 49ers that wish to return to our airline, this union must and will fight for their careers.
Yet, as non-49ers, we may be in receipt of the biggest reward for our own efforts; for if we do not continue to fight for resolution of the 49er issue, we will most certainly be next. Management has no intention of backing off its “Frank Lorenzo” style goal of employee control and contract destruction. We have witnessed a great deal, but management have a lot more to come yet. Not until every pilot’s contract is equivalent with the lowest common denominator and seniority and contractual rights are a thing of the past will management be satisfied. Think of how many times in the past nine years, they have declared an end to the cuts if we give just a little bit more. Without doubt, the worst cuts are yet to come and, if we show that we would sell careers and contracts for peace, we will learn to envy The 49ers we left behind.
There is every real possibility that you will see an attempt by management to purchase your morality in the next two months in the form of a “peace” contract, apparently better than the one you are on now. Directly or indirectly, you will of course be asked to give up on some of The 49ers. Such a contract would be a deal with the Devil - there can be no other way to describe it. Similarly, the long-term consequences will be dire. You could be faced with an ethical dilemma and I believe it will be soon. Prepare yourself now because this Association will be making the only choice it can make.
Nigel Demery
President
Date
Annexes:
Annex A: In Memoriam, Greg England.
Annex B: Why we Fight - The 49ers Roll of Honour
Annex C: No Paid Holiday - The Real 49ers Stories