Brussels Airlines : cabin crew strike looming

[papysn]

Hi,
I think the problem within Bruair is not about facts or numbers, everybody agrees the situation is bad (also due to some nonsens past decision from the management in my opinion..) and everybody has already given a lot to help the cy.
The problem is,for what i think, about respect and working atmosphere...despite all the efforts done by all the staff,respect from the management is cruelly lacking and the working athmosphere is deteriorating at very high speed....Respect or working athmosphere cost nothing it's only a state of mind !!!

Regards.
K.

[sean1982]

In all honesty, in all companies that I had the "pleasure" to view up close, either personally, through my partner or very good friends .... respect from management I have yet to find .... Aviation is the only sector in the world where employees sacrifice practically their life and get nothing in return. No respect, no compassion and in some cases not even a decent wage.

[bruteboeing]

yeah but some people think the aviation sector is the only place where it goes bad... but it's not. Striking could bring the company down and put everyone out of a job, and it's not the right time for stuff like that now.

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. There's country's where people work 6/7 days for 10+ hours a day and go home with only 300 euro's a month.

[sean1982]

Sure, but come on .... is that a reason not to try and improve conditions in the industry in general? There are other means to put a company under pressure then going on strike. If we have to follow you analogy, should we all abandon our houses then and go and live in huts in the bush?

[bruteboeing]

i'm not saying that you should go live in the bush, unless you really feel like doing so

But striking isn't always the answer... might end up doing more bad then good sometimes. I agree that if their conditions are "extreme" action should be taken, but maybe start with punctual actions instead of just striking and putting the entire operations to a stop.

But if a strike will happen i guess one of the biggest luck is that probably the bussiest part of the summer passed already. Although september may have some last minutes but i'm guessing that those apply more for charter ops ?

[cnc]

A member of that -very proud Liberal- union delegation!

what if SN go's bust? will you still be a part of that very proud liberal union delegation?
the CC's have good points but if they should look around them they would see its not better somewhere else.
they unions should be a bit more creative in finding solutions and actions rather then take the easy way and strike.
the unions killed sabena, will they now kill brussels airlines too?

[Flanker2]

what if SN go's bust? will you still be a part of that very proud liberal union delegation?
the CC's have good points but if they should look around them they would see its not better somewhere else.
they unions should be a bit more creative in finding solutions and actions rather then take the easy way and strike.
the unions killed sabena, will they now kill brussels airlines too?

The unions didn't kill Sabena, it was the management and then the government.
The Sabena management was unable to turn profits and when the government had the opportunity to save Sabena for the hundreth time, they didn't and let DAT take over.

The way SN is going, strike or no strike, it is dying. I've been saying so for over 5 years now.
The big problem at SN is not staff costs nor staff efficiency, it's an organisational and business plan problem.
As there is no hard target and no organisation, management looks at the easy stuff: cutting salaries or staff numbers, trying to split their shift in two, so they can come to work when they need them to, like that is going to make the company turn around.

SN's problems are not its costs, but its revenues. SN has about 8-9 million seats to offer each year, yet, they only achieve revenues of one billion or so because of their low load factor. If they sold each seat for 100 euro's, including longhaul, they could reach that result if they could sell all their seats, without the need for any yield management.
One of the big problems is that they are losing a big portion of low yield revenues, by focusing too much on the higher revenues.

SN' needs to find a away to fill their shorthaul flights to 100% at good yields.
For me there is only one option and that is to use the 2-class system to its maximum potential by selling economy very cheap and business at same prices but higher value for the customer. There is still room in-between for the corporates.

[fcw]

the unions killed sabena, will they now kill brussels airlines too?

You must be joking! Months, if not years before the bankruptcy unions started questioning the management. The management claimed to have everything under control, but afterwards it turned out they only had their second, secret, salary in Luxemburg under control...
You are hinting at the strike of the last weeks, but that was merely a strike out of frustration, as unions knew that despite multiple salary sacrifices the end was near and they realised that even working for free wouldn't save the company and they refused another salary sacrifce.
You could be right though that the same scenario is in the making, but only because the BruAir concept is not working, not because the unions refuse slavery.
My nett salary at a LCC is higher than the total salary cost (gross+ employer contributions) of my BruAir collegues. I work less than 200 days a year which is about 30 days less than my BruAir counterparts.

[sn-remember]

I agree with with some mgt issue and the fact that Sn is struggling.
For me it's not 5 yrs but 10 yrs and more since I pull the alarm bell on this site !
I think the mgt is presently trying to push forward some form of positive development, however with big difficulties ...
THeir problem today , in my view, is in one word "too little, too late"
But this judgement is pessimistic and I hate pesimism.
I followed sn history since 40 yrs (I am now 56) more or less without interruption and really its an experience of misery and extreme disappointments regarding an airline with lots of assets and potential (at least in the past)
I tend to follow your analysis Flanker up to a certain point.
To me it's not just a question of pricing. Price is linked to service, and I think they are doing not too bad. BRU facility has a price, high frequency flights also have a price, these are aimed (ao) at the business clientele requirements.
To me, the problem has always been the same since 40 yrs ...
The lack of vision, the complex of inferiority, the lack of interest, of mgt know-how, of financial investment in the airline business in this country. It's all linked, know how brings investment and investment brings profit... if well managed.
To me the central question is the route network and everything should be organised around maximising it's operation.
Without an intelligent, well synchronised network develpped along the strong lines (afi, NA and Eu) with well controlled synergies, with efficient equipement and dedicated manpower, it's a doomed project...
Sn are just starting the job from scratch and not with the trump cards in hand, at times with poor players.
Sad , sn's story is just a long long sad story ..
But, let's be positive and support the little signs going in the right direction.. ie long hauls timid recovery.
..
And to come back to the initial question, striking is just a nonsense.... The unions should negociate what is negotiable, meaning manpower basic conditions for efficiency. Give the crew the smile .. and the spirit, that's uttermost important.

[cnc]

You must be joking! Months, if not years before the bankruptcy unions started questioning the management.

in the end they got on the right track but among other reasons the strikes pushed it over the edge.
yes they/we had reasons to strike but in the end sabena went bust and we did all the effords for nothing because some union people wanted to show their power.
these days with all the media possibilities you get a lot of ways to put pressure without having to strike but they require some efford from unions where a strike is a day off from work

[Flanker2]

I too think that it's a shame and a huge waste of potential. The know-how is there, the staff dedication is there, it's just that everything doesn't come together as it should.

At the B.meetings which is a good initiative from Gustin to communicate with the personnel, you see that the guy is trying to bring unity, organisation and improvement. But I find that he is trying too hard to justify himself and his team's work, instead of taking a more brand-focused approach. He also likes to talk about SN as an SME, which to me shows that he's afraid to step up the game.

Another problem I have noticed first hand was that Gustin is surrounded by the wrong people (maybe not all of them). They talk a good deal and pretend like they know it all and own their departments, but if you zoom down to their departments, it's a complete mess. A lot of grumpy dwarfs, grumpying around for nothing, breaking the mood and morale of motivated people.

I would give the man a chance but he needs to step up his game and look by himself what is going wrong by talking to people directly in smaller groups, at their desks or workfloor, without the intimidation of their big-talking managers. Yes, you can laugh about it, but even the guy sweeping the floors in the hangar has a better idea of what is going on in there than Gustin.

One of such examples is the issues SN is having in their technical and logistics department. Just to give a simple example, if you walk into H41, you have a store with 2 big towers right and left of the doors, which were installed at a huge cost during the move from H117. Those towers are meant to save space to store small consumables. One big problem though, those towers are not reliable (regular break downs) and it takes 5 times more time to program the parts out of the tower, as they are not linked to the main system, which means that consumables have to be taken out of 2 systems before they can be handed over, and it simply takes that much more time to pick the orders by transferring the shelves and sometimes alternating between the two towers.
Due to that, they need extra storekeepers to keep the show running... the point of the towers was to reduce manpower required by reducing the walking distance and time of storekeepers...
Even in Africa they don't work in such a primitive "pseudo hi-tech" environment anymore, only a guy who doesn't know what he's doing could get a salesman to talk him to buying into such a nasty investment that has all people, including most employees if they were just stupid or got an envelope with money slid into their jacket pocket.

In flight ops and training departments, you still see a lot of training and operational documents edited in boring powerpoint/word format full of spelling mistakes, where other companies use interactive and easy to use, integrated editing and browsing programs, saving time and money every single day.

[Passenger]

Management and unions have signed a pre-agreement on Thursday evening.

(source : Flemish online newspapers)

[Flanker2]

What a surprise... So what did the unions achieve? The CC get to eat the remaining chocolates after the last flight?

[HighInTheSky]

What a surprise... So what did the unions achieve? The CC get to eat the remaining chocolates after the last flight?

WTF??

I had the impression you were finally adjusting yourself to the rules of this forum, being to post respectfully without bashing people... It appears that I was wrong !

[Flanker2]

Oh get real. The unions get their free publicity, the airline is happy as nothing changes and they can keep their favorite union representatives on their side. They get free advertising on hln.be.

In the meanwhile, the poor CC's will continue to work crazy duty rosters.

Not the first time, certainly not the last time. Of the tens of other strike announcement at SN in the past 5 years, none actually led to strikes. All were resolved with constructive dialogues wherein the management get what they want. What they want are often stupid little things that won't save any money in the long run.

[HighInTheSky]

I'm not even going to reply on your post...

Reports in the media appear to be false. There is no agreement at all.

[Flanker2]

Of course, that would be too easy. I think that the only way the unions can prove their credibility is if they either go on strike for real or if they manage to force the management to give in to a total solution, ie not only the roster patterns between short and longhaul, but a real solution.
For instance hire students to work on weekends, so regular CC's can work a more regular 5-2-ish pattern.

[airazurxtror]

Is there an agreement, yes or no ?
If yes, what is it ?

[CTBke]

no agreement yet

[B.Inventive]

No agreement and probably none will come.

You know at a certain point i begin to believe it might be better to let this company go bankrupt.
It simply is a rotten nest of "know it alls" who may know alot about their own domain but lack the skill of working with others.
Exit b.air, entry some new fresh company which promises to decline work to those rotten people...
Jeesj, at the rate they are restructuring soon all that is left is ryanair working conditions for 30% of their salary, who are they kidding.......