The open threat from Ms. Thompson the Director of Flight Operations
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A bluff? That is the question
Well after reading all the posts it has basically come down to the question of whether ATs letter is a bluff or not.
Many here believe it is. Some like myself don't believe so.
I hope I'm wrong. If the talks fail I have a gut feeling I'll be back on here in about 6 weeks saying "I'm not one to say I told you so but .........?"
To quote from the God Father. "Never hate your enemy, it clouds your judgement".
Many here believe it is. Some like myself don't believe so.
I hope I'm wrong. If the talks fail I have a gut feeling I'll be back on here in about 6 weeks saying "I'm not one to say I told you so but .........?"
To quote from the God Father. "Never hate your enemy, it clouds your judgement".
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"We'll keep pressure on and get all we want"
"They've never sacked a bunch of guys to send a message"
"Don't worry about a courier package sent to your home from the company, it's nothing"
"If you don't open it you'll keep your job"
"Everyone they've ever sacked has always got their jobs back"
"The public's on our side, they want to see us happy, fare prices don't matter"
"They've never sacked a bunch of guys to send a message"
"Don't worry about a courier package sent to your home from the company, it's nothing"
"If you don't open it you'll keep your job"
"Everyone they've ever sacked has always got their jobs back"
"The public's on our side, they want to see us happy, fare prices don't matter"
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Some of the comments here defy belief. Are many of you so scared of a threat? The worst is that they will do something draconian, and it will be the final push needed to get the hell out of here and IMPROVE YOUR LIFE ! Honestly, throw me in that briar patch. I am doing my job, to the letter of my contract. She can go to hell. Ignore her. You are giving her the exact reaction she was looking for. Seriously, what a bunch of women (with apologies to the real women). 
There is surely some melodrama here; In that vein I'm reminded of the fable of the Scorpion and the Frog. Ms Thompson is merely a product of the institutional Scorpion. It is their fundamental nature. Better then, methinks, not to be a Frog, but be a Turtle as in an earlier version of this fable. [The Turtle survives the sting due to his shell]
You can liken that shell to simply complying with your contract, and not being coerced into doing something stupid. Like MSS etc which would play to their plans.
Meantime, we can expect the Company to continue its rhetoric internally. Externally, the SCMP and other media will be managed to establish a drip feed of bad news for CX: Low yields, poor ROI, dropping load factor........
You can liken that shell to simply complying with your contract, and not being coerced into doing something stupid. Like MSS etc which would play to their plans.
Meantime, we can expect the Company to continue its rhetoric internally. Externally, the SCMP and other media will be managed to establish a drip feed of bad news for CX: Low yields, poor ROI, dropping load factor........
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Hey...leave the frogs out of this!😂
Honestly what can she do...
move some training to KA. This might help on the short run but not for long.
Stop bases...they dead anyway
Sack someone...who? That will make the pilot shortage worst, plus there will be years of litigation to come
Close the freighters and move pilots to the Airbus and 777...with what trainers?
Force me to be a training captain...nope!
Give me a new contract with no housing...goodbye👋🏻
I think the only long term consequence she was thinking of is her own job!
Honestly what can she do...
move some training to KA. This might help on the short run but not for long.
Stop bases...they dead anyway
Sack someone...who? That will make the pilot shortage worst, plus there will be years of litigation to come
Close the freighters and move pilots to the Airbus and 777...with what trainers?
Force me to be a training captain...nope!
Give me a new contract with no housing...goodbye👋🏻
I think the only long term consequence she was thinking of is her own job!
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The time has come to let them know that the days of disrespect, abuse and contempt are over. Let them have their 'deadlines'. At this point there is not a shred of concern left in me. They have brought this situation on themselves. To try and blame the aircrew is the final evidence that they are clueless. I couldn't care less anymore what they say or think. Most of us (45 or younger) would be far better off finding a happier career elsewhere. The entire world is trying to recruit pilots, this is not the only ballgame in town. Throw AT's threat back in her face. What a farce.
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If there are any drastic changes on the 31st, then I think every one of us is well within our rights to be off work due stress. They are playing a dangerous game, one they will regret. Bring it on Anna. I don't think you yet understand just how fed up we all are. But you will.
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I think it's pretty clear what she intends to do.
She will use our 'irresponsible behavior' as an excuse to open direct entry FO and CA hiring. Possibly on bases. It's pretty much written in her open threat.
This will have the effect of testing everybody's resolve: Seniors who are desperate for a base will see guys getting them in front of their noses, the juniors, who are desperately waiting for their upgrades to have enough money to survive in HK, will see those moved backwards.
Divide and conquer; the only strategy they know.
Remember that we're dealing with a Victorian-era management which would rather burn the whole farm down than let the peones have that extra slice of bread.
This is emotionally driven spite, not cold-headed and rational thinking. This problem could have been solved Months ago at minimal cost to them with proper management.
Let the hunger games begin...
She will use our 'irresponsible behavior' as an excuse to open direct entry FO and CA hiring. Possibly on bases. It's pretty much written in her open threat.
This will have the effect of testing everybody's resolve: Seniors who are desperate for a base will see guys getting them in front of their noses, the juniors, who are desperately waiting for their upgrades to have enough money to survive in HK, will see those moved backwards.
Divide and conquer; the only strategy they know.
Remember that we're dealing with a Victorian-era management which would rather burn the whole farm down than let the peones have that extra slice of bread.
This is emotionally driven spite, not cold-headed and rational thinking. This problem could have been solved Months ago at minimal cost to them with proper management.
Let the hunger games begin...
No, we've been officially warned not to disclose company information on the public web.
I doubt anyone will be stupid enough to post it here.
If you're not in CX then you don't need to see it anyway.......
I doubt anyone will be stupid enough to post it here.
If you're not in CX then you don't need to see it anyway.......
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normanton, No!!!!! Stop asking please. It's an internal communique not for EVERYONE'S EYES. If you are not with the company then you should not see it. Would you post letters from your company? If, however you are from one of the "sister carriers", I am sure you could get it just not on the Prune!
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Why do folks get themselves so wound up ? How many times have we been bombarded with BS about things just down the road which are going to make life so much better ? How many platitudes have we heard about pie in the sky systems destined to cure all that ails us ? How many working groups have been formed to fix problems that never seem to get fixed ?
So when it goes the OTHER way why do we all of a sudden start believing it ?
Point being if I see a source that hasn't proven itself credible through actions rather than words, I tend to wait for the actions to start happening before I believe ANY of the words coming from the source. Good or bad.
I do think from the tone there is genuine fear and concern on the part of the company but that's about all I get from it. Then again the situation is totally predictable (and at least somewhat avoidable)--they have been breaking their train set through their own actions--exacerbating an already difficult manning situation. Run an engine above redline, slam the throttles around, and alternate between idle and max repeatedly and incoherently--against the advice of someone who knows something about the engine you've got -- and it's going to break. You might get a sudden burst of speed, but you'll lose the race in the long run. Passing an opponent doesn't mean much when there's smoke coming from under the hood and there's still miles to go. I guess you can ignore the smoke for awhile, or write a whole bunch of rules saying that the smoke is the fault of someone else like the mechanic, but you'll get to the point where you press on the go pedal and it don't go anymore.
Rather than the panadol of an AMP, imagine if the same efforts were targeted toward the penicillin of a best fit solution to unstable rosters/continuous body clock swaps, "owned" rosters, having a work environment where people WANT to join, WANT to be part of the team, and WANT to stay, win-win fixes, and usable forms of long call reserve (or whatever you want to call it). Actually try to cure the disease of breaking the toys through fatigue related illnesses rather than try to patch the symptom, ignore the issues, and hope things get better. Pilots are problem solvers and WANT to make things work. But when no good deed goes unpunished this becomes pretty hard to do.
Maybe there really IS a problem with putting a non-operator at the throttle. At least if the non-operator is hard of hearing.
The solutions are out there (at least ones which can make the best of things with the assets we have). All's it takes is someone to listen and come to the realization in aviation trying to get by on the cheap usually ends up costing you ALOT more in the long run. Do the right and prudent things and things usually turn out well.
So, if the news bothers you, turn off the channel or watch something else. Turn it back on when it starts making sense and having something worth listening too. And keep on keeping on--taking care of yourself and your family. If someone's dead set on blowing an engine, let them blow THEIR engine and not yours.
So when it goes the OTHER way why do we all of a sudden start believing it ?
Point being if I see a source that hasn't proven itself credible through actions rather than words, I tend to wait for the actions to start happening before I believe ANY of the words coming from the source. Good or bad.
I do think from the tone there is genuine fear and concern on the part of the company but that's about all I get from it. Then again the situation is totally predictable (and at least somewhat avoidable)--they have been breaking their train set through their own actions--exacerbating an already difficult manning situation. Run an engine above redline, slam the throttles around, and alternate between idle and max repeatedly and incoherently--against the advice of someone who knows something about the engine you've got -- and it's going to break. You might get a sudden burst of speed, but you'll lose the race in the long run. Passing an opponent doesn't mean much when there's smoke coming from under the hood and there's still miles to go. I guess you can ignore the smoke for awhile, or write a whole bunch of rules saying that the smoke is the fault of someone else like the mechanic, but you'll get to the point where you press on the go pedal and it don't go anymore.
Rather than the panadol of an AMP, imagine if the same efforts were targeted toward the penicillin of a best fit solution to unstable rosters/continuous body clock swaps, "owned" rosters, having a work environment where people WANT to join, WANT to be part of the team, and WANT to stay, win-win fixes, and usable forms of long call reserve (or whatever you want to call it). Actually try to cure the disease of breaking the toys through fatigue related illnesses rather than try to patch the symptom, ignore the issues, and hope things get better. Pilots are problem solvers and WANT to make things work. But when no good deed goes unpunished this becomes pretty hard to do.
Maybe there really IS a problem with putting a non-operator at the throttle. At least if the non-operator is hard of hearing.
The solutions are out there (at least ones which can make the best of things with the assets we have). All's it takes is someone to listen and come to the realization in aviation trying to get by on the cheap usually ends up costing you ALOT more in the long run. Do the right and prudent things and things usually turn out well.
So, if the news bothers you, turn off the channel or watch something else. Turn it back on when it starts making sense and having something worth listening too. And keep on keeping on--taking care of yourself and your family. If someone's dead set on blowing an engine, let them blow THEIR engine and not yours.
Last edited by Shep69; 22nd Apr 2016 at 14:42.
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You know this works both ways, why dont we turn up the heat and draw our line in the sand right next to hers. If no fix by May 31st then we imply further indistrial action?
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You can link the May 31st deadline to delivery of the first A350. This is when the wheels are really going to start falling off the cart.
I suspect Miss T has been instructed by her superiors to have the crewing problem sorted out by then OR ELSE.
She has no idea how a pilot's brain works. She thinks we are uneducated and don't know all about how MBA students are taught draconian management methods. WE'VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE! It's laughable. She also thinks that threatening 3000 Type A personalities will save her bacon. This will be good to watch!
Goodbye Miss T. Been nice knowing you (not)!
I suspect Miss T has been instructed by her superiors to have the crewing problem sorted out by then OR ELSE.
She has no idea how a pilot's brain works. She thinks we are uneducated and don't know all about how MBA students are taught draconian management methods. WE'VE SEEN IT ALL BEFORE! It's laughable. She also thinks that threatening 3000 Type A personalities will save her bacon. This will be good to watch!
Goodbye Miss T. Been nice knowing you (not)!