A thinly veiled threat
 

I can't be the only one who noticed this ominous quote from the dfo in the latest weekly update (7/7/21) - "We far prefer following the volunteer route...". Referring to their inability to garner enough volunteers for closed loop.
Will we see some crew being forcefully 'volunteered'...

How about the now famous phrase “No decisions have been taken as to the future of these bases.”

Aye, the decisions have been made, but the actions haven't been taken...

Penske

Yep. That entire paragraph. As though a room full of bean counters are standing by to analyze each city in every base. As though they don't already know what each base costs them versus what it saves them. As though they don't know they could most likely force some version of PoS18 since the threat of closure has been made good in other bases. As though we don't all know how they despise first world labor law. As though there isn't an FON for conversions to the 747 in HKG with the training machine cranking them out as fast as they can and a provision to man in reverse seniority order if there isn't enough uptake. The only useful piece of info was that they'll swing the axe in Q3. The only analysis they are doing is when they've done enough conversions from the 777 to make sure everything will be covered heading into the Christmas season. And that looks to before the end of Q3.