MAS Employees Want CEO To Resign

Malaysia Airlines employees are not happy.

And I can totally understand why.

They worked for a prestigious airlines, so they did a good job and for the most part, took pride in what they did.

Unfortunately, they depended a bit too much on the government for running their business. From Wall Street Journal:

The union lobbied directly to politicians including Prime Minister Najib Razak, who was then facing fiercely-contested national elections.

For Malaysia Airlines, the carrier has been struggling financially as Asian full-service carriers face a squeeze from aggressive budget carriers such as AirAsia on their short-haul routes, as well as Middle Eastern operators, such as Emirates Airline and Qatar Airways, on longer flights to Europe.

Last year, Malaysia Airlines reported a net loss of 1.17 billion ringgit ($359 million), its third consecutive year of net losses. In the first three months this year, its net loss widened to 443 million ringgit from 279 million ringgit a year earlier.

Let me tell you why they have made such a loss.

Firstly, there is too much crony involvement. Every UMNOputra wants a piece of the pie. But then, there is only so much pie.

MAS is not exactly a cash cow. It is a national airlines and it flies some unprofitable routes that have to be flown for the sake of accessibility.

Secondly, do you people remember the elections? Do you remember what happened at the airport?

Are you aware that MAS has shouldered the cost for ferrying phantom voters across from East to West Malaysia?

That is a LOT of money.

But now, the airline employees want to be more involved in how their company is run, even though it has now been delisted and does not require approval for change to be made.

And they even want the CEO to resign.

The main employees' union at Malaysia Airlines says it expects to be consulted on plans to restructure the ailing carrier before any proposals are made, and renewed its demand for the CEO to resign.

The highly-influential union, representing half of the nearly 20,000 employees at Malaysian Airline System Bhd., says it hasn't been approached by the airline's management on any plans to revive the carrier, which is reeling from the loss of two jetliners in five months that has left 537 people dead or presumed dead.

Securing the support of the Malaysian Airline System Employees Union is crucial before any restructuring can occur at the airline, which is 69.4% owned by Malaysian state investment firm Khazanah Nasional Bhd. The union earlier scuppered a share deal with rival AirAsia Bhd.

"We know why they want to restructure, but we have not seen the plan so far," said the union's president, Alias Aziz. "Our priority is staff welfare," said Mr. Aziz, who leads the biggest of eight unions that represent employees at Malaysia Airlines.

It's about time the employees took more interest in the management of their company rather than just the operations of it.