An open letter to senior management
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An open letter to senior management
An open letter to Senior Management,
As labour constitutes 30% of your operating costs, it is appropriate you focus attention reducing and containing it. Airlines maintain teams of people and highly paid consultants who spend every waking hour in the pursuit of lower labour unit cost. Achieved through an oversupply of pilots you created: IR utopia. Upon which was built an industry designed to generate conflict, tension and anxiety in employees whilst claiming publicly you wanted productivity!
You aimed for fear, uncertainty and doubt. You got it. For decades the model held sway. At its apex sat Michael O’Leary and Ryan air a model replicated the world over. An oversupply of pilots eagerly looking skyward hooked on aviation. This was something to be abused and laughed at, but pilots were not in on the joke.
In Australia the IR sorcerers built an empire on those jokes and along the way a personal fortune. They devised ways to put pilot against pilot, undercut and divide. It worked brilliantly in Australia as it did in Europe. US Airlines since 1978 used Chapter 11 to restructure terms and conditions, Australian practitioners rolled out the playbook embracing the dark art of IR. Australia had no such corporate provisions, but nonetheless the international division that was somehow in ‘terminal decline’ in 2011, has just recorded another profit of near record magnitude. Amazing when it is considered that it was achieved on the same contracts with the same fleet that only four years ago that had management asking for AUD$3 billion in taxpayer handouts!
A question lingers of that year unanswered: Why was Lucinda Holdforth gagged by a court from releasing her memories of the supposed ‘spontaneous decision’ made with no help from IR lawyers on a Saturday morning in October 2011? Grounding the entire international fleet (and the domestic workforce not taking industrial action-yet excluding Jetconnect and Jetstar) you executed. You broke the implicit agreement between employees and their employer: Trust is sacred, you don’t count it, you can’t measure it but you sure know when it is absent. Your workforce loves the company, but you confuse it with admiration for your management model, many people delude themselves and Net Promoter Scores tell you nothing. To the teams of accountants if you cant assign a cost or value it means nothing.
So you have divided pilots, you have ‘competitive tension’ across the group. You have contractors flying company tails, you dangle new jets to another subsidiary and you wish to bring in another group of pilots to fly Australian registered aircraft on lesser conditions. You haven’t learned. Perhaps you ought to read Winnie the Pooh: Going to the hunny (sic) pot one too many times.
You have declining supply driven by demographics; you have the poster boy O’Leary on bended knee to his pilots. Kudos to you convincing a generation of prospective pilots that the lesser terms and conditions are all there is. They respond as rational people do; they never enter the industry.
So as you have started fights with your contractors, it is hurting your customers again. A cycle of wash, rinse and repeat, is that all you got? It worked for decades, but lack of trust lingers. You have done it to Qantas pilots; you did it to Jetconnect pilots, to Qantas link pilots and even the contractors at Cobham. Pilots learned from 2011.They do not trust you. Your model is breaking down. As Christmas approaches, there is a question you ought to ask yourself: Have you got a pilot’s licence?
As labour constitutes 30% of your operating costs, it is appropriate you focus attention reducing and containing it. Airlines maintain teams of people and highly paid consultants who spend every waking hour in the pursuit of lower labour unit cost. Achieved through an oversupply of pilots you created: IR utopia. Upon which was built an industry designed to generate conflict, tension and anxiety in employees whilst claiming publicly you wanted productivity!
You aimed for fear, uncertainty and doubt. You got it. For decades the model held sway. At its apex sat Michael O’Leary and Ryan air a model replicated the world over. An oversupply of pilots eagerly looking skyward hooked on aviation. This was something to be abused and laughed at, but pilots were not in on the joke.
In Australia the IR sorcerers built an empire on those jokes and along the way a personal fortune. They devised ways to put pilot against pilot, undercut and divide. It worked brilliantly in Australia as it did in Europe. US Airlines since 1978 used Chapter 11 to restructure terms and conditions, Australian practitioners rolled out the playbook embracing the dark art of IR. Australia had no such corporate provisions, but nonetheless the international division that was somehow in ‘terminal decline’ in 2011, has just recorded another profit of near record magnitude. Amazing when it is considered that it was achieved on the same contracts with the same fleet that only four years ago that had management asking for AUD$3 billion in taxpayer handouts!
A question lingers of that year unanswered: Why was Lucinda Holdforth gagged by a court from releasing her memories of the supposed ‘spontaneous decision’ made with no help from IR lawyers on a Saturday morning in October 2011? Grounding the entire international fleet (and the domestic workforce not taking industrial action-yet excluding Jetconnect and Jetstar) you executed. You broke the implicit agreement between employees and their employer: Trust is sacred, you don’t count it, you can’t measure it but you sure know when it is absent. Your workforce loves the company, but you confuse it with admiration for your management model, many people delude themselves and Net Promoter Scores tell you nothing. To the teams of accountants if you cant assign a cost or value it means nothing.
So you have divided pilots, you have ‘competitive tension’ across the group. You have contractors flying company tails, you dangle new jets to another subsidiary and you wish to bring in another group of pilots to fly Australian registered aircraft on lesser conditions. You haven’t learned. Perhaps you ought to read Winnie the Pooh: Going to the hunny (sic) pot one too many times.
You have declining supply driven by demographics; you have the poster boy O’Leary on bended knee to his pilots. Kudos to you convincing a generation of prospective pilots that the lesser terms and conditions are all there is. They respond as rational people do; they never enter the industry.
So as you have started fights with your contractors, it is hurting your customers again. A cycle of wash, rinse and repeat, is that all you got? It worked for decades, but lack of trust lingers. You have done it to Qantas pilots; you did it to Jetconnect pilots, to Qantas link pilots and even the contractors at Cobham. Pilots learned from 2011.They do not trust you. Your model is breaking down. As Christmas approaches, there is a question you ought to ask yourself: Have you got a pilot’s licence?
Last edited by Rated De; 25th Nov 2017 at 06:59. Reason: typo!
Insert eating popcorn GIF.
Estimated time of deletion of thread: Posting time plus 30 minutes.
Estimated time of deletion of thread: Posting time plus 30 minutes.
They keep going back to the hunny pot (sic) as it keeps on giving but one day soon it may not. I believe they have planned for this day.
I agree with your assessment and Mr O has shown us where the bottom is, no need to race there. He found it and now has to work up from there.
Lead B : wrong again
I agree with your assessment and Mr O has shown us where the bottom is, no need to race there. He found it and now has to work up from there.
Lead B : wrong again
Very happy to be wrong on this one!
Popcorn supply at the ready.
Popcorn supply at the ready.
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Bravo! 
Decades of this (mis)management model have made Australia a basket case... and they're still "kicking the stones around" wondering what went wrong & what to do next. Hold on lets get some more Consultants to find out
Well a few global Airlines HAVE made changes: HAVE listened to the pilots and labour supply companies and they are the ones getting the needed pilots!
Accountability for the Australian shermozzle, myopic behaviour and total disinterest in watching & learning from the global ebb & flow of pilot employment, goes directly to those tossers granting themselves massive bonuses and shares.
Decades of this (mis)management model have made Australia a basket case... and they're still "kicking the stones around" wondering what went wrong & what to do next. Hold on lets get some more Consultants to find out
Well a few global Airlines HAVE made changes: HAVE listened to the pilots and labour supply companies and they are the ones getting the needed pilots!
Accountability for the Australian shermozzle, myopic behaviour and total disinterest in watching & learning from the global ebb & flow of pilot employment, goes directly to those tossers granting themselves massive bonuses and shares.
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rated de, this looks like a brilliant opportunity for you to start up your own airline from scratch and show them how it really should be done. You could revolutionize the industry! Perhaps let your pilots make every business and operational decision, pay way above any current rates, latest and greatest aircraft, crews decide own roster, employ on time in the industry rather than merit, your wage will not exceed that of any other worker, all profits pumped back to staff etc etc. It simply has to work!! It's exciting just thinking about the possibilities and I just know you will show those incompetents how to do it!!
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Thanks Tailwheel, mature debate always welcome...
Au contraire,
No need, 15 March 1967 took care of that. Well worth some study: South West Airlines. Great book too highlighting the difference between labour unit cost, partial factor productivity and aggregate outcomes.
Paul McGuiness was indeed a pilot and Hudson Fysh his observer gunner. Together both of them built a business making all the decisions both operational and business.
Further, CAR 224 actually states explicitly that pilots make every operational decision.
CAR 224: Pilot in command
(2) A pilot in command of an aircraft is responsible for:
Au contraire,
You could revolutionize(sic) the industry!
Perhaps let your pilots make every business and operational decision,
Further, CAR 224 actually states explicitly that pilots make every operational decision.
CAR 224: Pilot in command
(2) A pilot in command of an aircraft is responsible for:
(a) the start, continuation, diversion and end of a flight by the aircraft; and
(b) the operation and safety of the aircraft during flight time; and
(c) the safety of persons and cargo carried on the aircraft; and
(d) the conduct and safety of members of the crew on the aircraft.
Strict liability as expressed in section 6.1 of the Criminal Code details who exactly is responsible for all operational decisions. Reviewing that statute will show you the liability and responsibility rests on one set of shoulder and in his absence the deputy commander.
Of course no person can do everything; aviation is the ultimate team sport. It isn't just pilots that make it work, it is flight planners, dispatchers, caterers, baggage handlers, refuellers, cleaners (sure you can think of some more!) Each make a contribution and the whole can't exist without their input. An amazing study of complex systems. Southwest Airlines systems work far better across the spectrum of measures than any other airline, ever wonder why? Thanks for your post otherwise.
(b) the operation and safety of the aircraft during flight time; and
(c) the safety of persons and cargo carried on the aircraft; and
(d) the conduct and safety of members of the crew on the aircraft.
Strict liability as expressed in section 6.1 of the Criminal Code details who exactly is responsible for all operational decisions. Reviewing that statute will show you the liability and responsibility rests on one set of shoulder and in his absence the deputy commander.
Of course no person can do everything; aviation is the ultimate team sport. It isn't just pilots that make it work, it is flight planners, dispatchers, caterers, baggage handlers, refuellers, cleaners (sure you can think of some more!) Each make a contribution and the whole can't exist without their input. An amazing study of complex systems. Southwest Airlines systems work far better across the spectrum of measures than any other airline, ever wonder why? Thanks for your post otherwise.
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South West paid less than the full service airlines for a very long time - at least 40 years or so. Wasn't until the big US airlines went bankrupt and slashed pilots' packages that SW pay equalled or exceeded the majors.
The delusion is widespread
About a year or so ago a defining moment was reached at a certain regional airline. The ratio of pilots who were former cadets and those from the more traditional stream, had finally reached parity. The Union and the company were locked in a particularly vigourous industrial campaign, and the schedule was beginning to suffer.
Enter a senior manager whose responsibilities included the company cadet program. This bloke had it all worked out. He gleefully told a room full of graduates that the day had finally come where industrial disssent would be wiped away once and for all. In front of puzzled and then bemused faces he informed the group, that as of this graduation, there would no longer be a voting down of any EBA proposal put forward by the company. The logic being that as there were now more cadets in the pilot group than non cadets, the company can expect their boys and girls to tow the company line.
After nearly 12 months of being reminded they had no rights, were lucky to be here, have been “kissed on the d!ck”, and generally driven by fear, this particular course followed in exactly the same steps as their predecessors and those who came after. They immediately signed up to the Union!
Enter a senior manager whose responsibilities included the company cadet program. This bloke had it all worked out. He gleefully told a room full of graduates that the day had finally come where industrial disssent would be wiped away once and for all. In front of puzzled and then bemused faces he informed the group, that as of this graduation, there would no longer be a voting down of any EBA proposal put forward by the company. The logic being that as there were now more cadets in the pilot group than non cadets, the company can expect their boys and girls to tow the company line.
After nearly 12 months of being reminded they had no rights, were lucky to be here, have been “kissed on the d!ck”, and generally driven by fear, this particular course followed in exactly the same steps as their predecessors and those who came after. They immediately signed up to the Union!
Krusty... a huge debt of gratitude is owed to a certain ex musician, without whom it may have all been destroyed.
They’re “expecting parity by Christmas”. I want to know what’s in their egg nog. Bucket loads of crew are on hold, maybe they don’t realise. Once the big airlines clear their overfilled training backlog, it’s going to be carnage again.
They’re “expecting parity by Christmas”. I want to know what’s in their egg nog. Bucket loads of crew are on hold, maybe they don’t realise. Once the big airlines clear their overfilled training backlog, it’s going to be carnage again.
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South West paid less than the full service airlines for a very long time
There was a discrepancy in labour unit cost and US carriers. that is a little of a straw-man argument; I never mentioned rates of pay, I spoke of terms and conditions: Rates of pay are one element in labour unit cost.
As you are probably aware, the labour unit cost at Ryan Air the apex of adversarial labour relations is lower than South West (in nominal terms) yet consistently the labour productivity at South West Airlines is much higher. What you pay people is would seem less important than how you treat them.
“A company is stronger if it is bound by love rather than by fear.” – Herb Kelleher
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Herb Kelleher: The Thought Leader Interview Summer 2004 / Issue 35
Now, how do you get low costs? Through a lot of things, including the inspiration that you give your people, their productivity, the fact that they feel that they’re doing something that is really significant and that they enjoy. If you take all of Southwest’s compensation together — wage rates, profit sharing, the full 401(k) match, the stock options that our people have — Southwest employees are the most highly compensated people in the airline industry. One of our pilots just retired with $8 million in his profit-sharing account. Now, you have to do well to produce that.
SP: Management have been spinning the parity (full crew compliment) by Christmas BS for years! It’s so tired a line that upon hearing it, normal well adjusted people just roll their eyes and move on.
Anyone want to invest in a few buses to compete with the airlines? Good business opportunity currently exists, not too hard to workout where the profitable routes might be, particularly with airport pickups...........
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Duck, that was Ryanair's pitch to airports, we might pay a piddling amount for pax charges but you get to stick them in the neck for parking, taxi's, buses, food & duty free. All documented by Siobhan Creaton in Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe, only $2.99 for the Kindle version.
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Christmas Crisis: 15,000 American Air Flights Without Pilots Over Holidays Due To "Glitch" | Zero Hedge
Australian exceptionalism will ensure Straya stays different!
If I were QF IR/HR I would have a stalking horse readied, you know JC to fly in Australia or a subsidiary to fly jets...And by gosh, quick open the next contract negotiation
Oh wait...they already did
Australian exceptionalism will ensure Straya stays different!
If I were QF IR/HR I would have a stalking horse readied, you know JC to fly in Australia or a subsidiary to fly jets...And by gosh, quick open the next contract negotiation
Oh wait...they already did
Nunc est bibendum
When Jetconnect is so desperate for pilots that they're asking some mainline pilots to provide referrals for people willing to work for Jetconnect and people with less than 2 years experience an undertaking command upgrade sims whilst also actively seeking employment elsewhere I'm not sure Jetconnect is the stalking horse that it appears. More like a stalking donkey. (The structure, not the individual pilots. Good luck to the F/O seeking both the quick command and the job elsewhere).
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Interesting comment
eukeybound
Odd that you accuse Rated De of loving the sound of his/her voice. The same could be said of you in the Qantaslink/Qantas recruitment threads.
IMHO, Rated De is a Pruner who's been around for a while and has created a new ID to write specifically about one theme. While he/she can go on a little, the posts are well written, and well referenced. They also APPEAR to be written by someone with some inside knowledge.
You, on the other hand, appear to be someone who's just left GA for his dream job at Qantaslink. Some of your posts could be considered
"optimistic" at best and "breathtakingly naïve" at worst. The irony is, is that you've just joined (Qantaslink) one of the prime users of Adversarial IR in Australian aviation.
Judging by some of your posts, you will be in for a rude shock.
I know who's comments I'd rather read. (Hint: the other guys).
Odd that you accuse Rated De of loving the sound of his/her voice. The same could be said of you in the Qantaslink/Qantas recruitment threads.
IMHO, Rated De is a Pruner who's been around for a while and has created a new ID to write specifically about one theme. While he/she can go on a little, the posts are well written, and well referenced. They also APPEAR to be written by someone with some inside knowledge.
You, on the other hand, appear to be someone who's just left GA for his dream job at Qantaslink. Some of your posts could be considered
"optimistic" at best and "breathtakingly naïve" at worst. The irony is, is that you've just joined (Qantaslink) one of the prime users of Adversarial IR in Australian aviation.
Judging by some of your posts, you will be in for a rude shock.
I know who's comments I'd rather read. (Hint: the other guys).