So butt-boy

Where am I from then?

I don't recall telling you, the geriatric (or anyone else) that a post was "lost on me". Don't presume to speak for me.

As you purport to know all, please enlighten us all with your eloquence, wit and intelligence on this "where I'm from" stuff...blah blah blah Cathay this Cathay that AOA this, AOA that, blah blah blah, malcontents this malcontents that...

Listen up sphincter boy

YOU ARE BORING

Get it? Got it. GOOD.

USA
 

CX has approached United and US air over direct entry Pilots and especially if industrial action begins.

Ooh good stir Rambo.

Yaawwn!
 

One year on and still going nowhere.
Mr Findlay has to justify the 5% subs that the union suckers are paying, meanwhile back at the ranch the sensible are voting with their feet.

No point in the AOA pointing to stateside and the MASSIVE settlements in AA UAL etc.. Chapter 11 indeed.


Hong Kong is Hong Kong.
Expat life is the same everywhere.
Do your job. Take the money. Play it by their rules.
Make hay while the sun shines.
Remember that we're guests here, and being paid substantially more than we would be in the UK/Europe, in a very tax favourable environment.

Nobody is forcing people to stay here, no-one owes anyone at CX a job.

GET REAL WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE.

Plastique,

You're right on the button!!

As an outsider in their environment, whoever 'they' may be, you play by their rules. If you don't want the job, there is somebody who does. End of story.

I don't agree that it should be so, and I believe in union representation, but they have the $200M+ aeroplanes, not the employees.

I recall a friend back in 89 saying to the AFAP 'You buy me an A320 to fly, and you have me forever.' Different circumstances from the dispute in HK, but if anything, the HK pilots are in a worse position because they are foreigners in somebody else's country.

Sitting in any gwailo bar in HK you will find that the same holds for the majority of HK expats.
Since the handover broadly speaking you have mainly (in no particular order) teachers, engineers, geologists, pilots and financial services.
There is a game which needs to be played, and lets face it in a lot of workplaces (the aircraft is no different) resentment simmers below the surface.

Ok picture the scenario:
You work for a UK company.
You company has a policy of recruiting Chinese nationals into the top positions, and makes a token effort at training locals to do those jobs, albeit at lower terms and conditions.
They are flown in on over twice your salary, and paid your salary again in housing allowances.
The live in enclaves in the most desirable parts of town.
They don't speak any english.
They continually take the **** out of British culture.
Their kids are sent back to China at the companys cost to be privately educated.
(and on and on)
How would you treat your privileged co-workers?
Particularly if they were continually posturing for more pay and better conditions.

Most of us here came for the money, and the opportunities that money affords.
CX is a stable airline, its come through the last 2 crises fighting, and has the backing of the deep pockets of the Swire empire.

You could brand be as selfish, but I'm not the type of person who will adopt the flock mentality and jeopardise my continued wellbeing for grieveances that the union (I'm not a member of any union) tell me I have.

I think that there are some among us who need to step back from the steaming rhetoric and have a long hard think about where this thing is going, and the motives of those perpetuating the "action".

Plastique

Fascinating post and highly readable.

Your intelligence and attitude to the job are clearly worthy of the Swire Star for Compliant Staff Award.

Clearly you are the sort of person that won't mind in the slightest being selected for the next batch of 49ers even tho' you haven't committed any sin?

I am not sure where you are coming from suggesting that expats spend time running down the locals. I find that suggestion grossly inaccurate and quite frankly exceptionally offensive. It has taken the 'expat' nearly 100 years to get to this level of safety in civil aviation.By hiring in the expertise, and being prepared to make haste slowly, the local aviation community will be the ultimate winners. I wish them well in their endeavours.

I would look again at that coffee you are drinking mate.....it has been spiked. Enjoy your weekend on the junk/cocktail party.

Plastique, if they were paid similar packages to their home country, plus obvious "expat" allowances, and if they were the only ones who could do it, then I suppose I would just have to live with it!!

Abbeville,
I just grin and bear it, take the money and bank it.

Swire compliant, give me a break... I'm as bitter and twisted as anyone here, but I know what side my bread is buttered.

I worked at a UK airline (flying coke cans) for a number of years, and I took the same sh!te for half the money.

I've come home many times after banging my head against a brick wall due to the STUPIDITY in how the company is managed.
I've even stuck my neck out on a many occasions to suggest "better" ways of doing things.

I was strongly advised by my management that it was in my interest to keep my ideas to myself.

Don't think that I've got my head up my ****, lets get real, the money is good, expat t&c's are on the slide worldwide (check out Emirates), so I'm happy to milk it for as long as it lasts, and retire 10 years earlier than would be possible previously by virtue of my well deployed ill-gotten gains.

BTW before you ask, I'm not one of the "replacement staff" I've been in HK well before contract compliance :-)

I agree with Plastique. If you don't like the way the company treats you.....LEAVE. Go home.

Problem solved.

Plastique, you called it like you see it. good for you. I think Abbeville is the one not calling it as it is. I have been an embarassed witness to numerous incidents of racist language, behaviour etc by the expats or their kin, particularly wives. P will not be added to the list of 49ers, and they were all chosen for a reason/s, none were randomly selected. Yes I feel sorry for them but in many cases they know why but won't say. I agree with Plastique also in this, how many of us have bothered to learn the local language? Not many and even less have learnt to read/write in the language. This situation would not be tolerated in our home countries.