Chris
5th Sep 2001, 05:55
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Cathay Pacific union says safety to take priority over on-time performance
Sep 4, 2001
Cathay Pacific Airways's pilots' union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, has informed its members to "increase vigilance and to adhere absolutely, to safety aspects of 18 specific areas of operation, regardless of the scheduled departure time of the flight.
In a statement, the HKAOA said the new approach to safety by pilots will become immediately effective.
"The previous pace of obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation. However, operations are no longer normal and on-time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations," the union's general secretary John Findlay said.
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Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
http://www.latimes.com/images/sectionheads/sfh_printedition.gif
Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
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Cathay Pacific union says safety to take priority over on-time performance
AFX Europe; Sep 3, 2001
Cathay Pacific Airways's pilots' union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, has informed its members to "increase vigilance and to adhere absolutely, to safety aspects of 18 specific areas of operation, regardless of the scheduled departure time of the flight.
In a statement, the HKAOA said the new approach to safety by pilots will become immediately effective.
"The previous pace of obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation. However, operations are no longer normal and on-time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations," the union's general secretary John Findlay said.
http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/homepage/NYT_home_banner.gif
Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
http://hongkong.scmp.com/images/iEdition/MastHead/Newscomlogo_Left.gif
Legal action may be taken over 'intimidation' VICTORIA BUTTON
The pilots' union is collecting evidence for possible legal action against individual colleagues or managers "intentionally degrading safety levels by way of intimidation".
Pilots have been asked as part of "Phase II" in their industrial campaign to report to the Aircrew Officers' Association legal department any person they perceive to have acted in an intimidating way that could affect operational decisions or safety. Union general secretary John Findlay said intimidation included aggressive interviews by managers about delays, particularly as pilots were about to leave or had just returned.
Other managers - or employees acting on their instructions - had followed pilots into the cockpit to watch them doing flight checks even though they did not have the qualifications to know what was necessary, he said.
Prosecutions of such people may be possible under the safety laws of the Air Navigation Ordinance as intimidation risked distracting pilots from their jobs, Mr Findlay said.
Cathay denies intimidation, arguing the union is intimidating its members by forcing them to choose between responsibilities as professionals and as union members.
http://www.scmp.com/images/iEdition/MastHead/Newscomlogo_Left.gif
Union sets out pilots' delaying tactics VICTORIA BUTTON
Cathay Pacific pilots are escalating their work-to-rule industrial action, documents outlining the next phase of their campaign reveal.
Members are instructed to "ignore the ticking clock" during pre-flight checks, even though this will "unfortunately, but necessarily, increase the already endemic delays".
"If you find yourself looking at your watch or the on-board clock during preparation - you are allowing OTP [On Time Performance] to interfere with your safety performance. Stop, take a breath, and go back to your task as if you had all the time in the world," one document reads.
"We feel that this is necessary to preclude the opportunity for stress and time constraints to become a very real factor in an accident or an incident."
Other new "safety" measures include delaying cockpit preparation if maintenance staff are present, refusing to waive normal rest periods, not rushing DHL parcel-delivery charter flights and demanding dirty windshields be cleaned if vision is impaired at all.
Cathay's general manager of corporate communications, Alan Wong Ka-lun, issued a written statement warning that any pilot who neglected punctuality would be in breach of contract. The airline has sacked 52 pilots during the dispute, reinstating one.
"The go-slow has nothing to do with safety. It is simply an attempt to deflect bookings and damage revenue," he said.
Most crew continued to operate professionally, he said, predicting more than 80 per cent of flights would leave on time.
Aircrew Officers' Association documents on the plan were distributed via e-mail on Friday, to be acted on immediately, but were not made public at the time.
Adherence to the strategy had become compulsory in the interests of member welfare and would be regulated, one of the updates noted, but did not detail what sanctions would apply to members who disobeyed.
The escalation comes as industrial action enters its third month. It follows an August 22 vote by pilots to incrementally increase action when appropriate.
Union general secretary John Findlay said the moves would not cause cancellations. "We're showing them [Cathay] the dispute is not over," he said.
Members were also being urged "do not be intimidated, stick rigorously to manuals, do everything properly and just do your job", he said.
The documents also allege:
A flight recently was planned to go within 35 nautical miles of Mount Mayon in the Philippines at night during an eruption, but the crew noticed the potential disaster and changed course;
There were numerous examples of pilots being inadvertently set illegal - in terms of duty periods - rosters by a system stretched beyond its capabilities;
The company had, in recent years, cut a sentence from an operations manual which had ordered: "Where a number of considerations present themselves, safety shall be the primary consideration."
Mr Wong said safety was always the airline's priority. Cathay Pacific did not respond to the allegations about the Mount Mayon flight or the "illegal" rosters.
http://hk-imail.singtao.com/freezone/feature/logo.gif
Cathay row widens as pilots step up action
Laura Winter, Hong Kong iMail
CATHAY PACIFIC passengers should brace themselves for more delays as the airline's pilots step up their industrial action under the guise of safety procedures.
Phase two of the bitter two-month-old dispute now comes into play with the "Maximum Safety Strategy'' (MSS), but the carrier has warned pilots taking part in the scheme that they do it at their own peril.
"Its adherence is mandatory for union members. It is NOT voluntary,'' the get-tough strategy document, which was e-mailed to union members over the weekend, said.
It said "total safety'' should outweigh on-time performance (OTP) - interpreted to mean that anything regarded as a potential safety hazard, no matter how minor, will be attended to, whatever the cost in time.
The union's blueprint for escalating the limited industrial action includes strict compliance with flight-time limitations, stringent pre-flight maintenance and preparation, and the avoidance of natural phenomena, such as potential volcanic hazards.
. The dispute revolves around pay, benefits and rostering.
John Findlay, general secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Association (AOA), said it could take some time before the airline felt the impact. "This limited action may result in delays given that pilots do not have sufficient time allocated to them to carry out their pre-flight checks properly. It is part of our incremental increase on industrial action. We are giving further advice to our members so that, during these non-normal operation times, they can ensure optimum safety standards,'' he said.
Cathay Pacific's general manager of Corporate Communications, Alan Wong Ka-lun, in a faxed statement, called the strategy "misguided'' and its guidelines "unauthorised''. He said the strategy's only aim was to deflect bookings and damage revenue.
"In fact, MSS should stand for `More Senseless Scaremongering' or `Maximum Spin and Sensationalism'. This is NOT a safety campaign,'' Mr Wong said in the statement.
Mr Wong said the limited industrial action had created unnecessary anxiety for passengers and the public. He warned that pilots participating in the escalation did so at their own peril. "Any pilot who is persuaded to wilfully neglect OTP is being persuaded to operate in an unprofessional manner and will be in breach of his employment contract.''
According to the strategy, cockpit crew will now wait until all maintenance personnel and ground staff have left the flight deck before starting flight preparations. If there is an interruption during a pre-flight procedure, the crew will start from the beginning.
Passengers will have to wait to board an aircraft until the main cabin has been cooled to an acceptable level to be determined by the pilots.
4 September 2001 / 03:25 AM
Cathay Pacific union says safety to take priority over on-time performance
Sep 4, 2001
Cathay Pacific Airways's pilots' union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, has informed its members to "increase vigilance and to adhere absolutely, to safety aspects of 18 specific areas of operation, regardless of the scheduled departure time of the flight.
In a statement, the HKAOA said the new approach to safety by pilots will become immediately effective.
"The previous pace of obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation. However, operations are no longer normal and on-time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations," the union's general secretary John Findlay said.
http://www.usatoday.com/_common/_images/ribbons/news_ribbons/inside/world.gif
Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
http://www.latimes.com/images/sectionheads/sfh_printedition.gif
Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
http://globalelements.ft.com/Common/Wrapper/ftcomlogo1.gif
Cathay Pacific union says safety to take priority over on-time performance
AFX Europe; Sep 3, 2001
Cathay Pacific Airways's pilots' union, the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association, has informed its members to "increase vigilance and to adhere absolutely, to safety aspects of 18 specific areas of operation, regardless of the scheduled departure time of the flight.
In a statement, the HKAOA said the new approach to safety by pilots will become immediately effective.
"The previous pace of obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation. However, operations are no longer normal and on-time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations," the union's general secretary John Findlay said.
http://graphics.nytimes.com/images/section/homepage/NYT_home_banner.gif
Cathay Pacific Pilots to Slow Down
Cathay Pacific Airways Pilots Have Decided to Step Up Their Go-Slow Campaign
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HONG KONG (AP) -- Cathay Pacific Airways pilots have decided to step up their go-slow campaign in a dispute with the airline about pay and working conditions, the pilots' union announced Monday.
The Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association said it issued a directive to the pilots to take the "next incremental step'' immediately in their labor action.
Since the dispute began on July 3, pilots have meticulously checked every safety detail before they would take off.
"The previous pace of the obligatory safety checks was conducive to acceptable levels of safety in normal operation,'' the union's general secretary John Findlay said in a statement.
"However, operations are no longer normal and on time performance will not take priority over total safety in pilots' daily operations,'' he said.
Under the new directive, pilots will not report early to complete safety checks before scheduled departure time of flights.
The pilots will also refuse management's request to waive normal rest periods and will stick to normal scheduling practices.
A Cathay statement said the go-slow campaign has nothing to do with safety but was simply an attempt to "deflect bookings and damage revenue.'' It said the union has no authority to issue any safety-related documents.
The dispute has cost Cathay at least 350 million Hong Kong dollars ($45 million) million) and forced numerous delays and cancellations of flights.
The airline said early last month that it had gotten its flight schedule mostly under control.
However, the airline claimed the pilots have then staged a sickout late last month, forcing it to cancel about 40 services.
Cathay has sacked 52 pilots following the dispute and rejected demands for pay rises of up to 32 percent.
The Aircrew Officers Association represents about 1,300 of Cathay's 1,500 pilots.
http://hongkong.scmp.com/images/iEdition/MastHead/Newscomlogo_Left.gif
Legal action may be taken over 'intimidation' VICTORIA BUTTON
The pilots' union is collecting evidence for possible legal action against individual colleagues or managers "intentionally degrading safety levels by way of intimidation".
Pilots have been asked as part of "Phase II" in their industrial campaign to report to the Aircrew Officers' Association legal department any person they perceive to have acted in an intimidating way that could affect operational decisions or safety. Union general secretary John Findlay said intimidation included aggressive interviews by managers about delays, particularly as pilots were about to leave or had just returned.
Other managers - or employees acting on their instructions - had followed pilots into the cockpit to watch them doing flight checks even though they did not have the qualifications to know what was necessary, he said.
Prosecutions of such people may be possible under the safety laws of the Air Navigation Ordinance as intimidation risked distracting pilots from their jobs, Mr Findlay said.
Cathay denies intimidation, arguing the union is intimidating its members by forcing them to choose between responsibilities as professionals and as union members.
http://www.scmp.com/images/iEdition/MastHead/Newscomlogo_Left.gif
Union sets out pilots' delaying tactics VICTORIA BUTTON
Cathay Pacific pilots are escalating their work-to-rule industrial action, documents outlining the next phase of their campaign reveal.
Members are instructed to "ignore the ticking clock" during pre-flight checks, even though this will "unfortunately, but necessarily, increase the already endemic delays".
"If you find yourself looking at your watch or the on-board clock during preparation - you are allowing OTP [On Time Performance] to interfere with your safety performance. Stop, take a breath, and go back to your task as if you had all the time in the world," one document reads.
"We feel that this is necessary to preclude the opportunity for stress and time constraints to become a very real factor in an accident or an incident."
Other new "safety" measures include delaying cockpit preparation if maintenance staff are present, refusing to waive normal rest periods, not rushing DHL parcel-delivery charter flights and demanding dirty windshields be cleaned if vision is impaired at all.
Cathay's general manager of corporate communications, Alan Wong Ka-lun, issued a written statement warning that any pilot who neglected punctuality would be in breach of contract. The airline has sacked 52 pilots during the dispute, reinstating one.
"The go-slow has nothing to do with safety. It is simply an attempt to deflect bookings and damage revenue," he said.
Most crew continued to operate professionally, he said, predicting more than 80 per cent of flights would leave on time.
Aircrew Officers' Association documents on the plan were distributed via e-mail on Friday, to be acted on immediately, but were not made public at the time.
Adherence to the strategy had become compulsory in the interests of member welfare and would be regulated, one of the updates noted, but did not detail what sanctions would apply to members who disobeyed.
The escalation comes as industrial action enters its third month. It follows an August 22 vote by pilots to incrementally increase action when appropriate.
Union general secretary John Findlay said the moves would not cause cancellations. "We're showing them [Cathay] the dispute is not over," he said.
Members were also being urged "do not be intimidated, stick rigorously to manuals, do everything properly and just do your job", he said.
The documents also allege:
A flight recently was planned to go within 35 nautical miles of Mount Mayon in the Philippines at night during an eruption, but the crew noticed the potential disaster and changed course;
There were numerous examples of pilots being inadvertently set illegal - in terms of duty periods - rosters by a system stretched beyond its capabilities;
The company had, in recent years, cut a sentence from an operations manual which had ordered: "Where a number of considerations present themselves, safety shall be the primary consideration."
Mr Wong said safety was always the airline's priority. Cathay Pacific did not respond to the allegations about the Mount Mayon flight or the "illegal" rosters.
http://hk-imail.singtao.com/freezone/feature/logo.gif
Cathay row widens as pilots step up action
Laura Winter, Hong Kong iMail
CATHAY PACIFIC passengers should brace themselves for more delays as the airline's pilots step up their industrial action under the guise of safety procedures.
Phase two of the bitter two-month-old dispute now comes into play with the "Maximum Safety Strategy'' (MSS), but the carrier has warned pilots taking part in the scheme that they do it at their own peril.
"Its adherence is mandatory for union members. It is NOT voluntary,'' the get-tough strategy document, which was e-mailed to union members over the weekend, said.
It said "total safety'' should outweigh on-time performance (OTP) - interpreted to mean that anything regarded as a potential safety hazard, no matter how minor, will be attended to, whatever the cost in time.
The union's blueprint for escalating the limited industrial action includes strict compliance with flight-time limitations, stringent pre-flight maintenance and preparation, and the avoidance of natural phenomena, such as potential volcanic hazards.
. The dispute revolves around pay, benefits and rostering.
John Findlay, general secretary of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers' Association (AOA), said it could take some time before the airline felt the impact. "This limited action may result in delays given that pilots do not have sufficient time allocated to them to carry out their pre-flight checks properly. It is part of our incremental increase on industrial action. We are giving further advice to our members so that, during these non-normal operation times, they can ensure optimum safety standards,'' he said.
Cathay Pacific's general manager of Corporate Communications, Alan Wong Ka-lun, in a faxed statement, called the strategy "misguided'' and its guidelines "unauthorised''. He said the strategy's only aim was to deflect bookings and damage revenue.
"In fact, MSS should stand for `More Senseless Scaremongering' or `Maximum Spin and Sensationalism'. This is NOT a safety campaign,'' Mr Wong said in the statement.
Mr Wong said the limited industrial action had created unnecessary anxiety for passengers and the public. He warned that pilots participating in the escalation did so at their own peril. "Any pilot who is persuaded to wilfully neglect OTP is being persuaded to operate in an unprofessional manner and will be in breach of his employment contract.''
According to the strategy, cockpit crew will now wait until all maintenance personnel and ground staff have left the flight deck before starting flight preparations. If there is an interruption during a pre-flight procedure, the crew will start from the beginning.
Passengers will have to wait to board an aircraft until the main cabin has been cooled to an acceptable level to be determined by the pilots.
4 September 2001 / 03:25 AM