Lee
6th Jan 2004, 08:58
SM to pilots: Quit at own risk
Reason: Even if hired elsewhere, you'd be first ones let go in a crisis
By Rebecca Lee
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) pilots who decide to walk can go ahead and do so, but Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew warned yesterday they will end up 'marginal workers' in foreign airlines - the first to be let go in any crisis.
In an interview with The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, he said the Government was prepared to see all the unhappy pilots who voted to oust their union's leadership leave the airline, if it came to that.
He also revealed that key players in the 1980 dispute between the pilots and SIA management - when he stepped in himself as Prime Minister then - were believed to be behind the current problems.
He was therefore involved again, and intended to 'finish the job'.
However, he said he hopes the new leadership of the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) is having second thoughts about taking a tougher stance in negotiations with the airline.
Asked why the pilots union has had a more turbulent relationship with management than the other four SIA unions, he said: 'The answer is pilots in all airlines have greater leverage, more pressure.'
It costs between $500,000 and $700,000 to train a pilot, who is then contracted to serve for six to seven years, before he can quit to work for another airline.
It is therefore easier and cheaper for an airline to poach a pilot from a rival than to train one from scratch, and that makes pilots more mobile and gives them a bargaining edge, Mr Lee said.
'So they say, 'Well, I will leave.' Is it so easy? Maybe.
'They can join Emirate Airlines. They can join Dragonair. They can join China Airlines. But there you are the marginal worker. Any downturn, you're the first to go. Right?'
Mr Lee was drawn into the Alpa-S saga after pilots threw out its leadership by a 55 to 45 per cent majority at an extraordinary general meeting in November last year.
The ousted council had negotiated last year's wage-cut arrangements with management after the airline was hit badly by the sharp drop in air travel following the Sars crisis.
The wage cuts - which affected non-pilots and SIA management too - were approved by Alpa-S members in July last year.
Mr Lee said that by getting rid of the council, 'obviously their intention was to show displeasure against the old committee for having compromised with the company'.
SIA has about 1,700 pilots. Mr Lee said the Government is prepared to have all 55 per cent of the unhappy pilots leave the airline.
'Forty-five per cent decided not to sack the old committee, so we have 45 per cent who will stay,' he said.
'Of the 55 per cent who will leave, I think we are prepared to see half go... or even if worse comes to the worst, all go. Can they find jobs somehow? Six hundred pilots suddenly looking for jobs?
'So let's be realistic. Let's sit down, this is not a game of bluff.
'This is a very serious game of brinkmanship we are playing. We are prepared as a government to go to the brink,' he said.
Harking back to the last time he stepped in to resolve disputes between Alpa-S' predecessor and SIA management, he said: 'I went to the brink the last time in 1980.
'I'm still here, I'll go to the brink again and clean up this problem.'
Mr Lee also revealed that the Government had information that the same players involved in the 1980 episode also had a hand in the latest saga.
'The same captains who were adversaries in 1980 are behind this new group, I think, but it makes no difference. This is a job that has to be finished and I'll finish it,' he said.
Asked about the conciliatory tone the new Alpa-S council appeared to be adopting, he said: 'I assume they've taken note of what we've said and I'm glad to hear they want to heal rifts.'
Newly elected Alpa-S president, Captain Mok Hin Choon, has said his immediate task is to mend the rift between the pilots and management.
Mr Lee said: 'But what was the point of sacking the old committee that arranged for the accommodation with SIA to overcome the Sars problem and then sack them off, having approved of what they did?
'Obviously, they had other intentions, so I'm glad they're having second thoughts. I suggest they should have more second thoughts.'
Stressing he was not making a threat, but stating the Government's position, as the biggest shareholder of SIA, he said: 'Let's settle this now instead of having this problem recurring every few years. We're going to settle this.'
Reason: Even if hired elsewhere, you'd be first ones let go in a crisis
By Rebecca Lee
SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) pilots who decide to walk can go ahead and do so, but Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew warned yesterday they will end up 'marginal workers' in foreign airlines - the first to be let go in any crisis.
In an interview with The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, he said the Government was prepared to see all the unhappy pilots who voted to oust their union's leadership leave the airline, if it came to that.
He also revealed that key players in the 1980 dispute between the pilots and SIA management - when he stepped in himself as Prime Minister then - were believed to be behind the current problems.
He was therefore involved again, and intended to 'finish the job'.
However, he said he hopes the new leadership of the Air Line Pilots Association-Singapore (Alpa-S) is having second thoughts about taking a tougher stance in negotiations with the airline.
Asked why the pilots union has had a more turbulent relationship with management than the other four SIA unions, he said: 'The answer is pilots in all airlines have greater leverage, more pressure.'
It costs between $500,000 and $700,000 to train a pilot, who is then contracted to serve for six to seven years, before he can quit to work for another airline.
It is therefore easier and cheaper for an airline to poach a pilot from a rival than to train one from scratch, and that makes pilots more mobile and gives them a bargaining edge, Mr Lee said.
'So they say, 'Well, I will leave.' Is it so easy? Maybe.
'They can join Emirate Airlines. They can join Dragonair. They can join China Airlines. But there you are the marginal worker. Any downturn, you're the first to go. Right?'
Mr Lee was drawn into the Alpa-S saga after pilots threw out its leadership by a 55 to 45 per cent majority at an extraordinary general meeting in November last year.
The ousted council had negotiated last year's wage-cut arrangements with management after the airline was hit badly by the sharp drop in air travel following the Sars crisis.
The wage cuts - which affected non-pilots and SIA management too - were approved by Alpa-S members in July last year.
Mr Lee said that by getting rid of the council, 'obviously their intention was to show displeasure against the old committee for having compromised with the company'.
SIA has about 1,700 pilots. Mr Lee said the Government is prepared to have all 55 per cent of the unhappy pilots leave the airline.
'Forty-five per cent decided not to sack the old committee, so we have 45 per cent who will stay,' he said.
'Of the 55 per cent who will leave, I think we are prepared to see half go... or even if worse comes to the worst, all go. Can they find jobs somehow? Six hundred pilots suddenly looking for jobs?
'So let's be realistic. Let's sit down, this is not a game of bluff.
'This is a very serious game of brinkmanship we are playing. We are prepared as a government to go to the brink,' he said.
Harking back to the last time he stepped in to resolve disputes between Alpa-S' predecessor and SIA management, he said: 'I went to the brink the last time in 1980.
'I'm still here, I'll go to the brink again and clean up this problem.'
Mr Lee also revealed that the Government had information that the same players involved in the 1980 episode also had a hand in the latest saga.
'The same captains who were adversaries in 1980 are behind this new group, I think, but it makes no difference. This is a job that has to be finished and I'll finish it,' he said.
Asked about the conciliatory tone the new Alpa-S council appeared to be adopting, he said: 'I assume they've taken note of what we've said and I'm glad to hear they want to heal rifts.'
Newly elected Alpa-S president, Captain Mok Hin Choon, has said his immediate task is to mend the rift between the pilots and management.
Mr Lee said: 'But what was the point of sacking the old committee that arranged for the accommodation with SIA to overcome the Sars problem and then sack them off, having approved of what they did?
'Obviously, they had other intentions, so I'm glad they're having second thoughts. I suggest they should have more second thoughts.'
Stressing he was not making a threat, but stating the Government's position, as the biggest shareholder of SIA, he said: 'Let's settle this now instead of having this problem recurring every few years. We're going to settle this.'