Below is a copy of a recent press release, which you can find at the HKAOA home page
here, under the press release 09 July 2002.
Information about the ban is
here and is copied at the top of this thread.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 9 July 2002
Cathay Pacific No Longer a Career Airline
Contract Abuse Must Stop To End Nine-Year Dispute
HONG KONG
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA), the representative body for Cathay Pacific’s 1,600 pilots, today said that Cathay Pacific’s continuing abuse of its pilots’ contracts has turned the airline from a career airline into a contract airline. It also called for an end to contract abuse by the airline if the management wants to end the dispute.
Contract airlines, mostly the low cost carriers, function with short-term contracts for its pilots. Career airlines follow a different model with a seniority system to encourage the world’s best pilots to join for ‘lifetime’ careers. Through its mass sacking last year, pilots at Cathay Pacific are now effectively on a three-month contract.
“It is a tremendous shame that Cathay Pacific is only paying lip service to being a career airline,” said John Findlay, General Secretary of the HKAOA. “Its unilateral change to contract terms, continued intimidation of pilots and the mass sackings quite clearly show that they do not want to maintain their reputation for hiring the world’s best pilots.”
“If Cathay stops this contractual abuse, this dispute can end tomorrow. It is entirely up to Mr Turnbull and his colleagues,” continued Mr Findlay. “We are willing to meet at any time to discuss these issues in an open and transparent manner. We are willing to abide by the findings of an independent mediator.”
“We urge Mr Turnbull to consider this proposition and not to reject our request again,” he said.
Mr Findlay was commenting today at the end of the HKAOA’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), held on the first anniversary of Cathay Pacific’s unjustified mass sacking of 49 pilots on 9th July 2001.
The sacking of the 49ers, who were fired by Cathay Pacific in an attempt to bust the union and intimidate its employees into submission, marked a new low in the nine year long dispute between the pilots and Cathay Pacific management.
Today at the EGM, the HKAOA’s members again voted to continue their support of the 49ers and their two colleagues who were sacked by Cathay Pacific one year ago. Despite statements last year by Cathay Pacific’s senior managers that the dispute was
over, it continues into its ninth year and support for the 49ers remains strong.
“This vote is a message to David Turnbull and his colleagues, that their union busting tactics failed a year ago, and they are still failing today,” added John Findlay.
Cathay Pacific’s management has rejected repeated requests by the HKAOA to meet to resolve the dispute, including recently a request to introduce an independent mediator.
The 49ers include four of the union’s seven negotiators, and a disproportionately large number of current and past union committee members.