Cathay Pacific pilots’ union chief quits after improved offer to end industrial dispute fails to take off

Darryl Soligo says time has come for Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association to take a different direction

Some 78 per cent of pilots voted to reject deal offering improved pay, perks and conditions on February 1

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The chief of Cathay Pacific’s pilots’ union has resigned little more than a week since members rejected a revised offer to end a long-standing industrial dispute. Photo: EPA

Published: 4:32pm, 9 Feb 2019Updated: 11:30pm, 9 Feb 2019

The chief of Cathay Pacific Airways’ pilots’ union has resigned little more than a week after members rejected a revised offer to end a long-standing industrial dispute.

Darryl Soligo said it had been “an honour and a privilege … but the time has come for the Hong Kong Aircrew Officers Association (HKAOA) to take a different direction”.

At the beginning of February, 1,775 – or 78 per cent of – rank-and-file pilots voted to reject a deal offering improved pay, perks and conditions in a bid to curtail a five-year industrial disagreement with Cathay Pacific.

The snub prompted some members to call for the union leadership to be sacked.

“We are weaker as an association when we act against those whose only goal is to represent you to the best of their ability,” Soligo said, acknowledging 11 motions put forward by members, one of which was to remove the union heads.

“Undermining the human resource of the union is no different than undermining the HKAOA itself.”

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