The GMA Epistle

[Trafalgar]

Where does one begin. As usual with anything from management, your letter is a diarrhea of dissembling, outright exaggeration, lies and distortion. It attempts to bludgeon with boredom and a complete lack of perspective and facts. It leads to the outrage that is firmly in favour of the AOA, and all the company pilots.

It starts out by stating that the AOA is the one that is ‘misleading’. So, predictably, straight into the old strategy of ‘tell a lie enough times and it becomes the truth’. In fact, the AOA has carefully and thoughtfully explained the FACTS of their offer (an offer I completely disagree with I might add). The main point he raises in the first section is that the AOA proposal ‘raises costs’. Well guess what Dom, running an airline costs money. Never mind the fact that your department has reduced in real terms the value of our jobs by almost 50% over the past 25 years, you now seem to think that years of below par raises, missed increments, no profit sharing, intermittent 13th month, and outright theft (I still want my 10% back from SLS) somehow makes the pilots the ones who have been unreasonable. In fact, compared to our national compatriots back in most of our first-world homes, we are now falling further and further behind. It is even more ironic and outrageous that just at the point in HK history when housing has reached record levels of cost, combined with ever smaller sizes of rentable accommodation, your department thinks CUTTING housing is reasonable. Whatever you are smoking, I’m sure it violates our drug clause at CX! (cut your own housing first btw)


You also mention that the AOA proposal ‘had damaging implications for our company and employees’. Unbelievable….as if everything your management has done these past years hasn’t been the REAL reason for the damage to the company. Another example of your delusion.

You then go onto mention costs, specifically stating that the proposal would raise the company’s costs by $3.5 billion over 10 years. So, that is only 1/3 of the amount lost EACH YEAR by your genius and industry leading incompetent fuel hedge. You have the nerve to quote $3.5 b over TEN YEARS, when you and your lot have been losing that amount almost every 4 months, for the past two years. Did you write that with a straight face?, just asking.

You go on to state that ‘there are no savings in the AOA proposal’. Well, I (and all the pilots) can CLEARLY see that what the AOA proposed would plainly reduce what we are paid and remunerated. So, if the money isn’t going to me, and you get to keep it, HOW ON EARTH CAN THAT NOT BE A SAVING FOR THE COMPANY? Rhetorical Dom...


You then mention that ‘communications must be factual and accurate’. Exactly the two things that this management has not done in the past 25 years. Over two decades of lies and deceit. And you have the nerve to question us on that score.

Then you mention sustainable cost savings. You completely ignore the fact that two of the biggest savings would be the CMP outcome, and BASINGS. But of course, you choose to ignore those two obvious cost benefits because to have included them would destroy your argument about other cuts being necessary. You have NO credibility until those two things have been implemented and assessed. You then close by saying that ‘doing nothing is not an option’. As I have just pointed out above, YOU are doing ‘nothing’, particularly regarding the obvious cost savings inherent in basings. It is obvious that what you are doing now is trying to commit a career enhancing ‘hail mary’ attack on our group. Well, let’s see how that works out.

You mention you are faced with ‘only difficult choices at this time’. Funny, you seem to have avoided the easy choices (basings, rostering improvements, etc). Your words speak process, but your actions speak the reality of your managements inherent dishonesty and duplicity. You say one thing, but your actions shout louder than your printed words.

You have 3000+ individuals who are implacably set against you. You are already seeing a markedly increasing resignation rate, increasing sickness rate and a general air of malaise set into your Flight Ops department. That is ONLY going to increase. It seems you choose to ignore the fact that the vast majority of aircrew are ACTIVELY seeking new employers. The crumbling of your department will be gradual….and then sudden. We are much closer to the ‘sudden’ bit of that equation. Most of us don’t care anymore about your corporate intimidation or threats. The majority have figured out that there are better careers elsewhere. Perhaps you can take a few years sabbatical from your office job and learn to fly. Soon you will need to be able to fill in on short notice. I think you’ll enjoy the TPE split duties.

Dom, nothing you write can obscure the fact that the majority of us are wise to the lies of this management. The fact that you can state that the cuts the AOA proposed were ‘not savings’ is only the tip of that iceberg (and direct evidence of your departments dishonesty). We live in HK. We know the cost of doing so. We know the cost of staying in touch with our families back home, the cost of health care, the cost of raising children, the cost of retirement. Nothing you offer addresses those concerns, and accordingly we will plan our careers elsewhere. In the meantime, while we await interviews and course dates, we will mess you up. The Christmas and CNY holidays are upon us. That is the only small pleasure left in this environment.