AOA Casual Vacancies
 

I normally do not get bothered by union stuff as I have became a non caring paying member since POS18, but the recent nomination takes me back to making a point in my recent flights.

There are two members of the current casual vacancies nominations who were part of GC at the time of TA18, and were part of the 9 who sued a AOA member (JR) for defamation and demanded he paid 50000HKD each (450000HKD) as compensation, using membership’s lawyers. This stemmed from JR questioning and criticising the GC in the AOA forum for their conduct in pushing TA18 to the membership. JR then had to use his own money to hire lawyers to defend himself against the 9. The outcome of which is unknown but the true colours of these plaintiffs were shown. Please for all our sake do not have a short memory and just vote in whoever puts their hands up. There are serious division within the AOA at the moment, but some are genuinely fighting to move forward to a new era of cost savings and having productive welfare for the membership as a whole. Meaningful voting of candidates counts towards making things happen.

For those that want the names and history please read up in the AOA forum. I will not disclose the names here.

It’s desperately important to make votes count. The last casual vacancy has seen a fantastic new chairwoman come to the fore but, sadly, recruit some who appear to have effectively frozen any GC progress by their obstructive ways.

Genuine question. What does the AOA actually achieves on behalf of its members in 2022?
For instance, my COS have been casually amended to our detriment by the company several times in the past twelve months. Was the AOA consulted or informed and able to resist?
At a very basic level, if a union has zero influence on the way our contracts are devised and revised, then I’m afraid the rest is just superfluous.

Fight for the AOA. Support Daphne. I flew with her in her early career. She is a unique and worthy leader of the AOA. Much respect.

I'm hearing good things about Daphne. With the huge exodus happening, and more to come with the end of housing/schooling, if CX actually survives this bat flu idiocy, the AOA might very well find itself in a decent bargaining position...

AOA has no power to bargain anything with 800 cadets in the pipeline and enough direct entry captains from SEA and the subcontinent willing to fill a job. If any of these potentials are willing to accept the abhorrent conditions in other countries getting paid POS18 will be a step up.

In the end CX doesn't need the gweilo anymore. You never know, maybe the barriers to the north get brought down because HK after all is now just another Chinese city...

I call BS on your rant. China will certainly need Pilots from western countries like before when it fires up again and HK will be no different.

It is understandable how the company have already walked all over us as an individual and as an union member, we have our hands tied that it made many felt indifferent since TA18 & POS18. Many good people are leaving everyday and it is sad to see what was once a great airline to work for reduced to a “pay to fly” airline in this expensive city. The slim hope I have recently is having new blood in the union with the agenda of overhauling HKAOA and hopefully changing it to a more effective & productive welfare unit where members can rely upon them at all times, start to come around from the bottom of the bell curve and be in a position to have an input in any decisions made by the company. I mean who knows if they can get their costs down they could lower the fees and get more new joiners to join and numbers speak volume. I have had to lower costs on all aspects of my life but I still think the union fees are worth it, if not for the insurance and the representation in case of any D&Gs. That is my personal opinion in the worth of the union.

Basically nothing for 2 reasons that I can see
1 The members are not united or prepared to strike this was very obvious in 99 and hasn’t changed since . This weakens any bargaining strength the AOA has
2 The GC hasn’t been very good at negotiating for the reasons in 1 above .
‘the union is only as strong as the weakest members

Cannot lah... They will just get pilots from Brazil/rest of South America. It's what was happening towards the end of 2019 anyway. Have you seen the new salaries that are being paid by the Chinese airlines? It's not great anymore. Have a chat to any recruiter and they will be more than willing to provide a spreadsheet. Fairly sure a FO on POS18 earns more now.

Gone are the days of 23.5k++ a month all in. New salary is around $4000 basic at many of the airlines.