20 plus years ago, senior management held a series of "commitment days" for pilots. Over a period of weeks EVERY CX pilot in groups of 100 or so ( the airline was much smaller then ) were invited to lunch at the Island Cricket Club and during the lunch we were told by senior management how the airline was to change. It was being re-branded and our commitment to the future was essential. Then a very professional video was shown. Employees from every corner of the company ( with the exception of the pilots ) were seen praising the company, how good an employer it was, blah blah blah. Every third interview had a secretary or check in staff member ask " but why do we pay our pilots so much ?" and "why do they get such huge housing payments ?".
The CEO at the time was Lynas Chung and he attended every lunch and fielded questions afterwards. I was there and I asked "why have you allowed those comments to be in the video ? It paints us pilots as elitist ?" He answered "Oh that was a mistake ". Mistake my arse. It was the start of a deliberate indoctrination to all other CX staff against the pilot body. This was 20 plus years ago and the rot set in from then.
As for Lynas Chung. He was the great local hope for the airline. He conceived the "Commitment Day " programme and within 3 months dumped the airline and left to run what was then Hong Kong Telecom, now PCCW.
Undermining the pilots has been part of the Swire mentality for 25 years. They hate us and persuaded most of the other employees to do the same. The tide turned against the pilots and the "cannot mentality" set in amongst office and ground staff. It continues today and the recent 13th month issue is just one of a long list of actions deliberately done to "get the pilots".
Ryanair management has admitted they had a similar plan. It has back fired on them and will do the same to Swires if we stick together.
Last edited by checklistcomplete; 20th Dec 2017 at 15:13.
Reason: spelling