As a cost cutting measure because I am learning to live with the reduced salary after all the cuts under various heading, I have stopped my subscription to the Local Straits Times, It saves SGD 22 a month.
This morning I had to run for getting a free copy of a newspaper here called TODAY, I was pleased to read an article on its 2nd page about SIA and its pilots. Mr. Ravi Veloo, the reporter who has written this article has actually tried to high light the actual problem in SIA with its pilots.Since I could not find the URL for this free newspaper I am reproducing the same article here for the benefit of ppruners. The Underlined portion is worth reading.
I fail to understand why the editors of the Starits Times does not look in this direction or may be this one is the mouth piece of the government and its GLCs. I only fear that Journalists like Mr. Ravi Veloo should not be asked to leave Singapore and perform his part of remaining National service in Taiwan Jungles.
Quote:
SIA Missing woods for the trees?
COMMENT/Ravi Veloo
[email protected]
"This is your captain speaking....There appears to be turbulence ahead....Usually occurs every few years between our pilots' union and the SIA management. Please fasten your seat belts for a bumpy ride.... And please no smoking. While we are steaming....."
The pilots' union which is holding out against pay cuts will meet its Singapore Airlines bosses today in a bid to cut a deal to avoid going to court.
While prime minister Goh Chok Tong has said the government will not intervene in this latest tussle, he has called on the Air Line Pilots Association Singapore(Alpa-S)) to be flexible.
But really, just what is it about Singapore Airlines that makes it the only company in Singapore to require two prime ministers and half a dozen other cabinet ministers to intervene on its labour relations over the past two decades?
In the 1980s, then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew actually threatened to dissolve the airline and form a new one if the pilots did not abondon a go-slow.
The joke among journalists then was that the new airline would be called, ISA, after the dreaded Internal Security Acr.
Mr Lee sent his own trouble shooter to SIA, then union supremo Devan Nair ( who later became President of the Republic of Singapore, and is now in self exile- who says Singapore is boring?)
He quelled the troubles, but apparently did not put out the fire. If all was well, surely it would not have been neccessary to take the unusual step six years ago of sending in another labour chief, Minister Without Porfolio Lim Boon Heng, to sit on the board of SIA. He is still there.
Yet, more trouble errupted. In the wake of Sept 11, 2001 when the SIA bosses asked all staff to take pay cuts until spooked passengers returned, the pilots demurred, requiring PM Goh to intervene, calling publicly on them to " go through this pain together". Last year, when SIA told its pilots they would no longer get to rest on Business Class seats for long haul flights but have to squeeze into Economy, the pilots actually threatened industrial action, which would have been the first here in 20 years.
Now, despite the obvious and urgent need to save money, with SIA facing its first possible loss ever, the pilots are again up in arms. Which raises the point, are we missing the woods for the trees?
Can 1,600 pilots, perhaps the most educated cohort in SIA, really be so stupid and recalcitrant as to want to hamper the biggest private employer in Singapore caught in its toughest crisis - as some members of the SIA management would have public and media believe ? Or perhaps could it be that the management has things to answer for as well.
It seems wholly possible that the pilots mey have a real set of grievences over the years that have not been addressed with the best management practices.
We cannot just dismiss their recurring protests as an industry quirk, pointing to pilot - management tussles in other countries. The fact is that Singapore's industrial and political climate is not similar to those countries. It must take a lot for somebody in Singapore to choose this confrontation path.
After all, the bottom line, as the pilots well know, is that they will have to accept some level of pay cuts to help SIA
So before we condemn the pilots for their intransigence, let us ask ourselves whether we have heard all sides of the story. If not, why exactly is that?
The alternative would be scarier for Singapore. That such a large cohort of our best and most skilled are totally irresponsible and cannot be trusted in a crisis. Which would you prefer to believe?
Unquote
Well done "TODAY" and Mr. Veloo, I hope Staraits Times should have its journalists like your calibre and guts.