Cathay Cabin Crew Threaten No Smiles for Passengers

[Extremist]

Flight attendants at Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways are threatening to withhold food, alcohol and even smiles from passengers during the Christmas holidays over a pay dispute, a union official said Thursday.

Cabin staff at the airline, which has a reputation for top-notch service, voted at a union meeting this week in favor of industrial action that could also result in flight delays.

The union is demanding a 5 percent pay increase but the airline, which is struggling to cut costs after posting a first-half loss of 935 million Hong Kong dollars ($120.5 million), has offered 2 percent and a 13th month bonus.

The Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union will soon announce when the action approved in the vote will be carried out, General Secretary Tsang Kwok-fung said.

"We may not provide alcoholic drinks to our passengers, or we may not even provide meals to passengers," in which case the union would advise travelers to bring their own food and drinks, said Tsang.

Limited service could also include withholding smiles and greetings from passengers.

"We cannot smile because of the situation, because of how the company treats us," Tsang said.

The union is also considering working to rule, which involves doing no more than the minimum work required in contracts and precisely following safety regulations.

Such tactics could include strictly enforcing size limits on hand luggage or waiting for all cleaning staff to leave the plane before boarding. The measures could delay flights by 20 to 30 minutes, Tsang said.

Some 1,600 of the union's nearly 6,000 members voted on Monday for industrial action after negotiations with the airline broke down.

The union is also considering a strike as a last resort, but not until the new year.

Cathay took out ads in Hong Kong newspapers on Thursday saying it's waiting to hear back from the union on an invitation to hold further talks. "We fully understand how important it is not to disrupt passengers at this busy time," the airline said.

The airline has "comprehensive contingency plans" to ensure normal operations over the holidays, Chief Operating Officer Ivan Chu said at a press briefing. He wouldn't give details.

 

[cass888]

Unions unions unions. A few of these stewardesses should be fired as an example for the rest.

Flight attendants at Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways are threatening to withhold food, alcohol and even smiles from passengers during the Christmas holidays over a pay dispute, a union official said Thursday.

 

[po2wq]

Flight attendants at Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways are threatening to withhold food, alcohol and even smiles from passengers during the Christmas holidays over a pay dispute, a union official said Thursday ...

dey shud get it rite ... iz not ze passengers who haf pay dispute wif dem ... not happy wif pay, tok 2 dosses ... dun take it on ur customers ...

 

[JanaineTeo]

Cathay stewardess are crap. They don't smile anyway.

 

[Loofydralb]

Unions unions unions. A few of these stewardesses should be fired as an example for the rest.

Obviously youve never managed a company with a real union before.

Unlike cowardly Singaporeans, others will fight for one another.

In your example, firing a few will kick off industrial action where all union members will stop work, possibly for days. Company will lose millions not to mention customers past and future.

And the person that kick start it all of, that is you, will be fired.

 

[The_Hypocrite]

now a days union not as powderful as b4..look at Qantas,,,,the CEO shut down the flights n the union capitulated,,,,so no biggie

Obviously youve never managed a company with a real union before.

Unlike cowardly Singaporeans, others will fight for one another.

In your example, firing a few will kick off industrial action where all union members will stop work, possibly for days. Company will lose millions not to mention customers past and future.

And the person that kick start it all of, that is you, will be fired.

 

[cass888]

Striking workers should be fired even if the company loses money. Company can lose a few tens of millions of dollars, but high-spending stewardesses cannot go two months without a job.

Obviously youve never managed a company with a real union before.

Unlike cowardly Singaporeans, others will fight for one another.

In your example, firing a few will kick off industrial action where all union members will stop work, possibly for days. Company will lose millions not to mention customers past and future.

And the person that kick start it all of, that is you, will be fired.

 

[chupacabra]

I agree that they should be fired. There are lots of transvestite out there who can easily do these kinda jobs. Blurdy waitress job nia.

 

[cass888]

That is the way to deal with the unions. But Quantas is a weakling. Should have fired anyone who didn't turn up for work within 6 hours.

now a days union not as powderful as b4..look at Qantas,,,,the CEO shut down the flights n the union capitulated,,,,so no biggie

 

[Picardo]

Such an innovative, novel and refreshing idea may well make the air travel industry boom too.

I agree that they should be fired. There are lots of transvestite out there who can easily do these kinda jobs. Blurdy waitress job nia.

 

[tanakow]

You aka LKY?

Unions unions unions. A few of these stewardesses should be fired as an example for the rest.

 

[cass888]

Give me a chance at the striking workers and you'll be begging for LKY to come back.

You aka LKY?

 

[garlic]

They dont have world's bestest tripartite system for them.... lumpar uno!

 

[Fascist]

Hail Hitler!!!

That is the way to deal with the unions. But Quantas is a weakling. Should have fired anyone who didn't turn up for work within 6 hours.

Hail Hitler!!!

 

[maxxi]

Well they got an improvement on their working conditions.

Unions do have clout..

 

[jw5]

No fake smiles and greetings, no airline food and no drunks on board?
Really? Promise?

 

[SereneLee]

Catpact gals all very materialistic hongkie type. Men should be beware.

 

[Lestat]

Catpact gals all very materialistic hongkie type. Men should be beware.

Doesn't matter much if my interest is only to bang them for one night.

 

[Asterix]

Catpact gals all very materialistic hongkie type. Men should be beware.

Men should be even more wary of the SINKIE 5C types. Very hypocritical one.

From Georgie Boy's South China Morning Post, 20th December 2012:

"They may have been entangled in the middle of an industrial dispute with bosses, but staff from Cathay Pacific brushed that aside to raise money for Operation Santa Claus by taking part in a flash mob.

More than 115 Cathay Pacific Airways Cabin Crew shared the festive spirit with their colleagues and the Hong Kong public by staging the six-minute flash mob in Cathay City on December 13 to raise money for the charity.

Surprising their colleagues at lunchtime, the crew used props including their crew luggage and meal trolleys while dancing from the crew lounge to the staff canteen to songs including Come They Told Him and Macarena.

At the end of the performance, a children’s choir from South Lantau sung a trio of Christmas carols while volunteers collected donations from the crowd."

Ask SINKIE SIA girls to do charity? You gotta be mad. They can't even treat their NS men on chartered flights to Taiwan for military exercises like a normal passenger. PUI (sideways) - NS men on way to Taiwan prefer to fly via TW's China Airlines. SIA without the lousy 5C Singapore girls is the way to go! I have never voluntarily flown SIA and will never do so unless and until they get rid of all the lousy 5C Singapore girls. I willingly pay double to fly Cathay Pacific.

Video of pretty multi-tasking non-Sinkie stewardesses is here:

 

[Asterix]

Well they got an improvement on their working conditions.

Unions do have clout..

Only if the unions are truly independent. The below article from today's edition of Georgie Boy's South China Morning Post will contrast with the SPH, MOM, SMRT & NTUC's incompetent handling of a small bus strike.

--------------------------------- From SCMP, 21st Decemer 2012 -----------------------------------

Cathay Pacific's cabin crew called off the threat of industrial action yesterday after striking a deal on working arrangements.

A marathon meeting between representatives from the airline, the Cathay Pacific Flight Attendants Union and the Labour Department began at 11am on Wednesday and finally ended at 1pm yesterday. Asterix: Wow, civil servants from HK's Labour Department really EARN their pay unlike their useless equivalents in SINKIELAND's MOM!

The talks were adjourned for a few hours yesterday morning, when it was far from certain a deal would be struck. Holding back tears, union chairwoman Dora Lai Yuk-sim said during the break that the airline would be given until noon to respond to the flight attendants' demands.

If no agreement was reached, the union would go ahead with a work-to-rule today, which would be escalated to a strike on New Year's Eve. But at a brief meeting after the deadline, the two sides struck a deal.

"We see significant progress in the agreement we signed, so industrial action is not a consideration any more. I am happy about this outcome," Lai said.

The union decided not to pursue a pay rise above the 2 per cent it was offered, having originally asked for a 5 per cent increase for its 6,000 members. But it won improvements for staff working on "red-eye flights" that require cabin crew to work overnight with only about an hour between shifts. The union has called the practice "inhuman".

Cathay operates three such flights a day. Lai said the airline agreed that cabin crew can take a night's rest in Singapore - one of the three destinations - before they fly back to Hong Kong.

On the other two flights, arrangements will be changed to allow crew to rest while onboard. They will not spend the night at their destinations.

"Let's say we can spend a night at Singapore, we will get a HK$500 outport allowance. That's much more than the HK$200 we get from the 2 per cent pay rise," Lai said, explaining why the union did not pursue a higher pay rise.

The union also got a concession on a cross-base flying scheme, in which Cathay proposed that staff posted overseas can fly between more of its bases than at present. The union wanted to scrap the proposal, fearing local crew would be replaced.

Both sides agreed that though the scheme would still go ahead next month, crews based outside Hong Kong will not exceed 15 per cent of Cathay's total cabin crew staff. And the number of non- local crew on flights will not exceed half of the total.

This part of the agreement will be reviewed after two years.

Lastly, Lai said the airline agreed to review general flight patterns so that crews get more rest and time at outports.

Cathay's general manager of cabin crew, Liza Ng, said she was pleased with the outcome. "It doesn't matter how long the meeting was, the important thing is that both sides are satisfied with the result," she said.

The result of the meeting echoed what Cathay's chief executive John Slosar said in an interview with the Post on Monday.

"If you go back and look at the past, things can normally get resolved quickly," he said.