Thought this would make for some interesting reading!
[QUOTE]Weltwoche 2002 08 08, English
In the mess
Author Sepp Moser
Kept alive with billions but hardly viable. The rescue exercise for Swiss
clearly demonstrates one thing: the failure of politics.
Swiss politicians take their time before they start moving. But once they
do, they tend to behave irrational. It is in those situations that one can
observe what Walter Borner, Professor of Economics, describes a
characteristic of Swiss politics: "The hectic stagnation".
As a case in point one can mention the happenings around Swiss
International Airlines. For months the Federation and the Cantons behaved as
quiet shareholders of the new aviation group, which came into being out of
the collapsed Swissair and its small daughter-company Crossair. Now, in the
face of the continued fight about pilot's salaries, they suddenly cry out
loud.
President Villiger swears in anger "not to pump one more franc" into the
airline and offhandedly assigns the blame for the strong turbulences to the
Crossair pilots. On the other hand, National Councilor (SP) Susanne
Leutenegger sees this as a matter of the national government: "The federal
government has to take action if there is no agreement within the next two
weeks."
But just how and why, please? If politicians care now so much about the
fate of the airline, why did they not take a stand much earlier? Why did
they, in October 2002, write a check over two billion francs for a rescue
exercise whose chances for success were disputed already at that time? Why
did nobody intervene when President Dosé allowed salaries for the Swissair
pilots that were beyond the business plan? Why is today nobody talking about
the option of lowering the salaries of the Swissair pilots to the level of
the Crossair colleagues? And why is nobody irritated about Dosé's plan to
change the compromise verdict of the mutually accepted court of arbitration
regarding salaries, to the detriment of the Crossair pilots?
The Crossair pilots are not at fault
In the meantime even the "NZZ am Sonntag" is convinced that for the
forceps delivery of the airline Swiss, "political wishful thinking" was
stronger than economical facts. The situation of the group is now "more
difficult than ever". After a series of incidents it is considered to be
just "short of negligent how long the board already watches the drain of
trust in the safety areas".
Please note: This board is constituted largely of followers of business
tycoon Rainer E. Gut and Federal Councilor Kaspar Villiger who are friends
and have together initiated this rescue exercise.
For the record: Swiss cannot be profitable because it is far too big. The
salaries granted to the pilots of the bankrupt Swissair have destabilized
the expense budget. What is simply not acknowledged: The Crossair pilots
have by no means demanded more salary, but simply oppose to be paid less
than their colleagues, who would, without this rescue exercise, all be
without jobs. Te responsibility for this development lies with Gut, Villiger
and all those who, last autumn, kept Swissair artificially alive and had it
transformed into the Zombie Swiss. It is common knowledge that government,
as a principle, should refrain from such actions.
Basically all is as it was
Politicians now stand knee-deep in a mess. It becomes more and more
apparent that Swiss is nothing else than Swissair minus three letters; in
the business "Swiss" is meanwhile known to stand for "So what, it is still
Swissair". After all, Swiss uses Swissair's aircraft, staff, routes and
landing rights, the organization charts and procedures, and even the
Collective Labor Agreement for part of their pilots has been adopted nearly
verbatim. From the old Crossair, hardly anything is left.
Even judges start to notice these facts. In France, Air Liberté who was
shortchanged by Swissair to the tune of 87 million francs won a court case
for damages against Swiss. Two levels of appeal will follow. The recent
change in Frances government will allow for a more Swiss critical climate,
not the least because now also Mr. Ernest-Antoine Seillière who lost 400
million francs, has again good friends among civil servants and judges.
If only one of the French creditors should succeed in holding Swiss liable
as Swissair's successor, all walls will break. In at least two European
countries (not counting Switzerland) SAir creditors are planning to indict
Swiss - a vital threat to the Swiss Airline Group.
Under this viewpoint, the sudden hectic of the politicians only looks
logic. Because they start to fathom the risk of failure of this rescue
exercise, they now try in preventive damage control for themselves. They
look for scapegoats and found them - the Crossair pilots, who come in handy
to divert from the failure of the polititians.[QUOTE]