USAB. Reality of the market, and CX's 'head in the sand' approach
Todays Wall Street Journal has an article discussing the recent management proposals to address pilot pay at American Airlines. A few salient points:
1) In November, AA management offered their pilots an immediate 18% pay rise (yes...18%), plus 3% a year for four years.
2) The Union has countered suggesting a settlement that is effectively an additional 7% over and above the amounts quoted in point '1'.
3) The Flight Attendant Union at AA has just received a 6.5% raise effective immediately. The total package makes them the highest paid FA's in the US industry.
4) Doug Parker, CEO of AA, is on record saying that he believes the employees 'deserve' industry leading wages because 'they' are responsible for keeping the customer coming back.
5) All other US carriers are racing to establish industry leading wage and benefit packages.
So....where does this leave USAB..? Simply put, they are a pathetic shadow compared to the main US carriers. USAB needs at minimum a 25% pay increase to match what is on offer from the main US carriers. That does not even address other issues such as staff travel and medical benefits, nor retirement benefits which are far superior to anything that CX offers.
If CX has ANY thought of keeping labor peace in the US, they had better wake up to the fact that they are FAR behind the curve in compensation and benefits. The fact that they allowed the USAB pilots to suffer a pay CUT this year says everything about how out of touch they are about the reality of the market place.
Wake up Ms. Thompson. It is time you and the rest of the ivory tower in HK realise that the industry has moved on....and far away from the current stunted ideas coming out of Hello Kitty City.