Swiss downsize definite

[pointseveneight]

Swiss

The downsizing now being announced is not entirely unexpected, unfortunately. Swiss is Crossair, given a new name and a new mission (National Airline with a lot of tax-bucks). When it was called into being last April, the government poured the money in to save Swissair jobs, while Swissair got another billion from the taxpayer such as to let it go down the drain in an orderly manner. Fair enough. But in order to transplant as many jobs as possible from Swissair into Crossair/Swiss, the airline was overdimensioned by such a margin that it will not fit into any alliance network, not to mention One World. The major pilot union, Swiss Pilots, saw it coming: Another 860 pilots simply were not neded. Warnings were issued to government and the company, yet the managment kept insisting it was doing the right thing. Sand was thrown into the investors (speak: taxpayers) eye, to create the fait accompli we have today.
Now, as Swissair is effectively cloned and recreated, they go about trying to get rid of everything carrying the faintest whiff of Crossair. That includes the pilots. Already in April 2002, the new pilots joining from bankrupt Swissair simply denied signing the existing collective contract, although they were invited to propose adaptations as seen fit, effectively blackmailing the management and the governement into fulfilling all their wishes to remain a separate group and call the shots in their new home, Swiss (née Crossair). Management and the Swissair pilots together then tried to arm twist the (incumbent) larger pilot body to sign a new contract, effectively robbing them of seniority, salary and making them the full risk beares for lay-offs effectively downranking them into second class. That was not accepted, of course, triggering a string of lawsuits and ugly standoffs in the media, continuing to the day. The result is two totally separate pilot groups.

So while today's redimensioning of the airline as such is one thing that is widely accepted, who will have to go is an altogether different matter. The Swissair pilots only joined in April and officially work for an expanded and rebranded Crossair. If this was not so and Swiss would be declared the product of a Crossair-Swissair merger, the French, the Belgian, the Portuguese and the German governemnt, as well as the many holders of small stakes who lost all their money in the Swissair fiasco would be on the backs of today's Swiss managers. So that's the official version, we're a new company. In house, it's quite different: One is told that this really is a merger where Swissair exercises all their rights, but, pssst, don't tell: walls have ears and the sword of damocles hangs over you in the shape of 18 billion in debt. The way the Swissair pilots behave followes this logic. The way this new airline outfit was created borders on being outright criminal. And now comes the downsizing. Guess who should pack up and go? Those who joined last? No, chums, you guessed it, the others. Those who, in the mean time, have been re-invented by Swissair as the second class “regionals” (With "regional" destinations like Kenya, India, north Africa and Iceland). With the taxpayers money, Swissair is given a new home and the "natives" are bootet out. You can imagine what sort of unrest and infighting this will spark. I cannot find a better example of how downright destructive and arrogant a cult of elitist pilots can be, endangering the very lifeboat they have been given with all it’s occupants.

What a shame.