2002 - Another View

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Best regards - Nigel Demery

This message has been sent to you and many others on my private email list. It is a summary of my personal opinions. Some of you are close friends, some professional acquaintances, some are on my contact list from past subscriptions to a Boeing or Airbus handbook; I ask you all for a moment of your time.

Last week, you received a ballot in your company mail box (or if you were a 49er, at your home address) asking you to state your choice for the next leader of the Hong Kong Aircrew Officer's Association. This is undeniably the most critical presidential vote in your Association’s history, and I’d like us all to think very carefully before we make our choice.

If you have read “Grounded: Frank Lorenzo and the Destruction of Eastern Airlines”; if you’ve also read “Hard Landing”, “Confessions of a Union Buster”, and “Flying the Line - Parts 1 and 2”; if you have served as a Principal officer under two presidents; and if you have sat across the negotiating table from management, then most of what you are about to read will be of little surprise. If you have not, I urge you to take the time to absorb the following very carefully…

You have two choices in the upcoming Presidential election – that’s right – two choices:

1) Vote for Nigel Demery. Your vote will say that “I’m prepared to think long term and I’m prepared to stick it out, tough as it may be.”

2) Vote for an alternate. Both candidates suggest the same course of action – change for the sake of change. Wave the white flag, cross our fingers and “trust” that the management “team” that has pounced on any sign of weakness for ten years will suddenly have a change of heart and open their arms to us.

I must profess here and now that I have the utmost respect for the alternate candidates for taking the bull by the horns and running for president. Both behold good intentions. Unfortunately, I believe much of the logic for their respective platforms is critically flawed and naïve. I would never claim to be all-knowing when it comes to labour relations, but I have learned a great deal in my three years serving you, and I would like to share that gained knowledge with you.

Although I am confident that Nigel Demery will take the Presidency, it is important that he do so by a strong majority. Management will undoubtedly attempt to make PR out of any votes that go to an alternate. “xx% of the membership doesn’t support the Association”. They will also perceive any alternate votes as a target for future division attempts. I will leave Nigel to express his own platform, but I am concerned that some of you may be tempted to vote for an alternate due to claims that cannot be substantiated. It is for that reason that I am writing to you today.

Let’s have a think about some of the statements that you may have heard recently…

A common send-off I receive from members is “Hang in there”. I always respond by saying “Don’t worry - the 49ers are hanging in there because they don’t have a choice - It is the membership who has a choice and needs to hang on”. You have a choice in this election - you have a choice to tough it out or give up. From the 49ers to the membership, we urge you to hang in there.

When you hear the phrase “It’s gone on long enough”. Don’t nod and agree – ask, why? If we haven’t achieved fair treatment for each 49er and a contract that protects ourselves and our families from a no-reason three-month termination letter, why should we stop fighting? Ask the person who tells you that it has gone on long enough – Do they have a personal deadline for resisting the wrongful termination of their peers and the destruction of our career? Perhaps they’re just tired. Perhaps some are just tired of paying 4% dues (it is a small amount compared to the percentage that management will extract from your contract and salary if they are successful in dismantling your Union.)

“As a Union buster, my key weapon was time. I would drag out a dispute so that members would stop blaming management and instead begin to think of their Union leadership as impotent. Eventually they would just give up and the bust would be complete.” Marty Levitt, author of “Confessions of a Union Buster”, in Hong Kong, 2001.

Do you think the dispute has gone on so long because the Managing Director has a personality clash with one man? Do you think a new president will put us on the road to reconciliation? The thought is nonsensical. Management has ignored repeated offers from Nigel to resign as part of a resolution. Management has declared a “personality issue” with every President and every General Committee for a decade. They will do so with the next President and the next General Committee. The only personality clash is with a Union membership who is willing to stand up for itself.

Attempts by conservative members to search for a solution behind the scenes have been largely ignored. After all their efforts, management would not even give them a yes or a no. These members were just as, if not more, conservative than either of the alternates. To believe that management will actually start negotiating because a more conciliatory face is presented to them is wishful thinking.

“Let’s try the concessionary route and see what happens. If it doesn’t work, we can always go back.”

It doesn’t work. By logic, it should. A management that wants a good relation with the Union and its employees should keep promises – it’s logical, I agree. But how many times should we prove to ourselves that the current management style defies logic? It didn’t work in 1994. It didn’t work in 1997. It didn’t work in 1999. Even after everything that happened in 2001, we gave them what they were asking for to “see what happens”. We suspended Industrial Action and we threw in Contract Compliance. What did we get again? A gesture of good faith? No - more demands. Ask yourself what has changed that would make things different this time.

We are all problem solvers by nature. Why not try a possible solution? The reason is because we can’t “just go back” and management knows it – which is why they are demanding it. The legal and industrial pressures we have in place cannot be just “turned back on again” if concessions fail to produce fruit. As expansion looms, give the levers time to work and we will be back at the table – lets not impatiently throw away a year’s work.

Should we attempt to talk to them, engage them? Of course we should, and that has always been our goal. Your current leadership has attempted many avenues to produce talks and have never turned down a request for dialogue. Our attempts were not rebuffed because of a Union leadership personality – they were turned away because management does not wish to negotiate.

It’s also important to remember that talks don’t equal good faith negotiations. Changing to a naïve leader now may eventually produce “talk”, but it will be one-way. There will certainly be no fair resolution of the 49er issue, no protections against further terminations or contract abuse (check the alternate’s manifesto and see if you can find any discussion on resolving contract abuse). The legal and rostering protections you have fought for in past years will be gone. Overkill? Ask a flight attendant to see her contract.

Most ironic of all, is that any peace achieved will be temporary. Why would management not attack you again if we prove that we will concede even under the most personal of circumstances? And it may well be your name on the DFO’s letter in a year when further concessions are demanded.

And why would that be? Because management say they won’t take them back? Here are a few other things that management has said…

Reality is what we make it. If a President decides not to seek a fair resolution for the 49ers (or agree to an interview system that would allow management to pick and choose which 49ers to take back – there’s no difference), it isn’t the 49ers who will bear the brunt of those actions, it’s the membership. He will have set a precedent that will be permanent. He will have lain in stone that it is acceptable to terminate without reason or recourse. What do you think will happen in a year’s time when management decides they are ready for another attack? Don’t forget that in 2001, no one was safe.

Any attempt to “partially” resolve the 49ers issue will ultimately fail. There will be no “fighting another day” and such a move would cement the fate of the rest of the membership. No attack in the future would be defendable. You will be on a tenuous, worsening, withering 3-month “contract” permanently. Overkill? Ask someone from the Local Staff Union to see their contract.

How many references to militant action are in Nigel’s manifesto? What has Nigel asked of you in the past two years? Pay your dues, wear a ribbon to support your sacked colleagues, and take the minimum level of industrial action to defend your entire career. Instead of striking on July 10^th, he asked you to maintain a steady course of low level pressure. In mid-October, he suggested you suspend industrial action and contract compliance to precipitate talks. He has undertaken surveys and polls to firmly establish your wishes, concerns and opinions, and then used that information to formulate strategy. Is that militant?

Serving on the General Committee has an odd effect. It tends to draw you towards the center of the political spectrum regardless from which end you began. I’ve served under Nigel as a principal officer during his entire term of presidency. The only thing he is “militant” about is the level of commitment he demands from his committee. He is also adamant that his committee be a reflection of the views of the membership. Nigel insists not only on a balanced General Committee, but on a balanced Vice Presidency as well. That balance ensures that your committee’s direction is a true representation of the membership’s choice of direction. Nigel has the leadership skills, the experience, the knowledge and the political stability to deal with the current management strategically and intelligently. Does the alternate have those skills? Does he really?

If a member really wishes to withdraw his support from the Association, he will find a reason. Having Nigel Demery voted in for a third term as President is about as sad a reason for quitting as I’ve heard yet (and I’ve heard a few beauties). Remember that your President carries only one vote out of 20 - one voice among a committee that spans the entire political spectrum. If you really don’t like the direction of the Association, then join the General Committee - you’ll have the same voting power as the President.

Our great Union has the luxury of a democracy. For that same reason, I will continue to serve this Union to the best of my abilities under whichever President the membership chooses. For the sake of your career, your contract and your family, I urge you to do the same.

If you don’t know it yet – it was a trap. Read up on Frank Lorenzo. Management desperately wanted you to go on strike. That was their plan. Had you gone on strike July 10th, you would not have the options you have today. You wouldn’t have a Union at all. You would have been locked out. They’ve already wasted 1.5 billion HKD trying to bust your Union. How long do you think they would have let a strike go on? Would you have been on the picket line September 12th?

Nigel Demery has won acclaim from Associations worldwide for playing a smart, unemotional game and beating a determined Union buster. Sure, we made a few errors that we learned from, but in general, we learned from the mistakes of others and played an excellent strategy. With the full benefit of hindsight, I would have changed little.

“Okay, I’ve heard it all and it makes sense, but you have to agree that the current plan isn’t working”

Why would you say it isn’t working? We survived the Union bust. The legals are pushing through. We’ve gotten through everything that the team of management & Bin Laden would throw at us. Despite doomsday predictions of Association implosion, the vast majority of members have toughed it out, and financially, we’ve “arrived in better shape”. Would you get half way up Everest and say you haven’t achieved anything? In 1942, did the Allies give up, because the current plan “wasn’t working”? Does a World Cup team give up at half time, because the score is 0-0? I’ve got a million of them, but I won’t bore you – you get the point.

Like me, many of you will have at one time in your early career taken part in a survival course. The scenario – you’ve crashed, or you’ve gotten separated, and you’ve got to survive long enough for help to arrive. You’re out in the woods and you’re defending yourself against the harsh elements. You have to take care of the four basics: shelter, warmth, water and food. Once that is in order, you attract as much attention to your situation as possible. You don’t do anything fancy, you just stick to the basics. Those basics keep you alive. Help may not come right away – it may be quite some time. But you stick to the plan. You may lose a few pounds, you may get lonely and demoralized, but you stay alive.

Yet every year, dozens of people survive the initial disaster, only to get killed during the “survival” period.

They say, “This isn’t working”, or “Maybe I can get out on my own”, or “Maybe everything I’ve learned was wrong”. They doubt their instincts. They second guess everything they’ve ever been taught – and they end up dead. Usually the rescue team finds the body within a mile of the shelter that was built and then left behind out of frustration.

Ladies and Gentlemen, you have a tough road in front of you, but the toughest road of all is over your shoulder.

You will prevail if you persevere. Stick to the basics. Stick to the plan. Don’t walk out now.

In accordance with section 35.3 of your Conditions of Service we hereby give you notice of termination of your employment with Cathay Pacific Airways Limited. This termination will take effect from the date of this letter and will be by means of payment of 3 months’ wages in lieu of notice. On behalf of all of management, I wish to thank you again for capitulating in 2002.

HKAOA PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 2002

ANOTHER VIEW

HKAOA Presidential Election 2002:

Vote again FOR Your Future, Vote FOR Nigel