ALPA-S vs SIASU (cabin crew branch only ah))

Look at Alpa-S the pilots' union and compare to its cabin crew counterpart. I am saying SIASU (Singapore Airlines Staff Union)is not a good union,in fact it was and will always be a good union.
What I am saying here is why is there so much infighting amongst the cabin crew,each smearing and back stabbing one another.
The pilots are more united to face the management compared to cc. That could be the main reason Alpa-S could not be easily cowed. Alpa-S could even afford to donate to the Home Nuring Foundation a sum of $50,100 to help the poor in this economic downturn.
I still remember the time in the 1980s when a few of their members were sacked because of their industrial actions. The whole exco were hauled up by PM Lee Kuan Yew to the Istana and chastised.
The members themselves raised huge sum of money and helped those sacked pilots.Eventually through the goodwill of both sides, the sacked pilots were reinstated.
The cabin crew,through the hundreds of comments in my blog (had since been deleted by me)did nothing constructive but criticised and smeared the current cc union reps as well as its chief Alan Tan.
Alan's supporters are no angels either.They blamed Eddy Chew the ousted union chief for all sorts of things. Not only that but called Eddy and his fellow unionists all kinds of names.
Come lah cabin crew get united with Alan & team and leave your personal agenda/grudges aside and unite to form a formidable front to face the management (also got KNN asses too).
Let me see you buggers write some nice comments here about one another and I will publish them...ok?(outsiders who are not crew pls 'smoke cigar')..dat means outsiders don't comments la stupid!

Have a good laugh.

Miser Vs Generous King

This bugger which I will call ksk (kiam seap kwee meaning miser king)was a colleague of mine. He was so stingy that he would not even spend a cent on his meal during lunch time. He would scrounge on his colleagues and subordinates be it for a bowl of noodles,coffee,tea,desserts etc etc in the staff canteen or something more expensive like eating out in restaurants during our lunch break or other occasions.
In the staff canteen,when anyone of us was reaching our turn in the long queue to buy our food,ksk would quickly come up and sniffed around and ask whether we could also get the food for him. His reason was the queue was long and he hasn't had the time to queue for his food. So as you would know,the person buying the food for himself and ksk would have to pay the hawker. After eating,ksk would conveniently excused himself and vamoosed off without paying.
Many of our colleagues would not want to embarrass ksk and never asked for payments.
This bad habit of ksk was also practised on the junior crew. At night stops he would scrounged on his crew,hardly spending money from his pocket.
Guess what when we all retired together in 2003?? ksk had bought himself a $150,000 car. Mind you he lived in a private apartment and not a HDB flat (most of his victims lived in HDB flats or government subsided flats).
On the flip side we had a colleague nicknamed GK or generous king. GA was the opposite of ksk. GA would buy his colleagues meals,drinks and even treat them to karaoka sessions,pubs sometime spending hundreds a night. GA seldom allowed any of his colleagues to pay the bills. He would be the first to grab the bill and settled them. Afterward, when they tried to settle the bill with him he would refuse to accept. His favorite reply was 'sup sup sui' meaning it's loose change to him.
As a colleague in the office,GA was also 'same same'. He was also helpful towards his juniors and the crew loved him.
Today GA is working as a prison officer in Australia. I was told the prisoners loved him too. He was seen playing table tennis with some of his prisoners by someone who told me.
There were many more 'characters' which I will go into some other time.

This blog is for sale

If anyone is keen on buying this blog please email me at bohtong@yahoo.com

The price is negotiable.

Why blame cabin crew management?

By this time almost everyone in SQ knows that it's cabin crew division has this system of asking junior crew to give feedback on their supervisors' performances on their flights.

Why has cc come to this stage? Answer is some of the ifs (in flight supervisor)are skiving and in the worst case scenario some even drank alcohol whilst on duty. Others 'off-load' (stole) things from the aircraft for their own consumption.

During my time, there was this ifs who was so pissed that he can't even wear his hair piece properly. His subordinates had to adjust his hairpiece for him on the flight. I was told he would regularly filled up the 1.5 liter mineral water bottle with whisky and brought to the hotel.

Another one fainted on his flight because according to a doctor, he was suffering from alcohol withdrawal (his superior was on his flight to do an appraisal on him and so he had to refrain from drinking)...what a joke!

Whenever a passenger loses his wallet or money, a particular ifs would be on that flight. Was it a co-incidence? Can't be when 1/2 dozen of such cases happened on that ifs's flights. He was once seen by his crew to have flushed a passenger's passport and wallet (after he had emptied its contents)into the aircraft toilet.

There were other cases of ill disciplined ifs.

On the flip side there were also ifs who were on the 'ball'. These ifs were conscientious,always had the welfare of passengers and crew in their minds.

Take the late Philip Voon for an example. He was an exemplary ifs and cc rightly extended his retirement to 60. He died about 3 month before his retirement. In fact, his last flight was a turnaround flight where some ifs in his situation would have reported sick.

John Mitchel was another good example. One of the outstanding things he did was cleaning a disabled passenger's butt after a severe bout of diarrhoea. He could have instructed the ground staff to do the dirty job but chose to do it with his crew (a/c was on ground after a flight).

There were many ifs who were good crew but a few bad apples had damaged their reputation.

It is a good move by cc management to introduce the above practice. In this way, cc can differentiate the good and the bad ifs.

Hahaha now less comments

Since I stopped the unwelcomed comments by resetting my blog,I have only 2 comments. Otherwise I would be having about 20 to 30 comments a day. These people who commented were usually vicious in their attacks against ifs like Roy,Eddy etc. There were some who commented responsibly but sad to say,I had to remove them all in one go.

Comments or not,I would still have many visitors here. In fact new visitors are greatly valued by me. They generate income for me by way of clicking on my adds. The regulars are usually engrossed in bitter fighting amongst themselves to be of benefit to me.

I think morally it's wrong to mention names whom you are opposed to. Don't mention names and I may publish your comments. As for the constructive ones,I will surely publish them with or w/o mentioning names.

From now all comments will be ................

There were many unwelcomed comments in this blog. I have stated I would not be held responsible and asked my readers to comment sensibly but it fell on deaf ears.

As of today, all comments will be moderated and only responsible ones will be published.

My apologies for curtailing or censoring unwelcomed and unsolicited comments here. Once again please do not mentioned names in your comments unless it is for benefit of that person/persons.

Alan still has strong support but......

Looking at the polls (right-side bar)with another 6 days more to closing 87% said Alan is serving the members very well and only a mearge 9% disapprove of the way he is handling things. Well well but then why are there so many unhappy crew? Just look at the comments under my posts regarding the matter eg the following one:

Peter said.....

Alan might lose in the next election, he is letting the management bully us, our pay is gonna be stagnant for the next few years, we were all cheated of our extra $500 in our basic pay, by not cutting our allowances?? where got logic??? he is a poor negotiator, our hotels are based on being "suitable" no more 5 star liao, how can A380 have a HKG turn at least make it a nightstop, make us work like fuck, this is worse than dogs or monkeys. How can they even allow 5hours transit in SGN?? wait like a stupid idiot without being paid, this is nonsense, i think SQ cabin crew better unite together and strike...Saturday, July 18, 2009

4:16:00 PM Totally, totally Agree.Stupid F@@@k Union.

Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:50:00 PM

Please tell me are those comments justifiable? If they are then we have a big problem at hand.

Steward stole while victim was crapping.

Tanaka san came back to his hotel room almost pissed that night in Tokyo. He opened his door ,undressed and went to the loo to crap.

Observing him over in the opposite hotel room was a steward call Frank. Frank was a kleptomaniac,meaning he was a sick man. He must steal or else he can't have a restful night.

Tanaka-san threw his trouser on the floor,dashed into the toilet,forgetting to lock the room door.

That's when Frank came into Tanaka's room. He lifted up the trouser and dug his hand into the pocket of Tanaka's pants. There were many coins and they jingled as Frank's hand searched for the Japanese yen. He couldn't find any cash except the coins.

Tanaka san while crapping heard the jingling of the coins and without cleaning his ass rushed out of the loo and shouted at Frank. Shocked,Frank scooted off as fast as he could.

Tanaka san reported the matter to the hotel and from the cctv they caught Frank. Nothing was lost though but Frank knelt down in front of Tanaka san and the hotel manager and begged for forgiveness.

Tanaka told the manager he would settled the matter with Frank privately.

Tanaka san brought Frank to his room and it wasn't long before both of them became drinking buddies,drinking till early morning.

However,the sad thing was the matter was reported to the company.It was reported by Tanaka san but by someone else. As a consequence,Frank was dealt with severely by the company.

3 years ago..hahaha

Request for the removal of Singapore Airlines logo and associated images

Monday, November 27, 2006 9:15 PM
From: "Peggy_Yeo@Singaporeair.com.sg" View contact details

To: bohtong@yahoo.com

Cc: LeeSeng_Nam@Singaporeair.com.sg, Seth_See@Singaporeair.com.sg, Gerald_Koo@Singaporeair.com.sg, Cindy_SimLiShan@Singaporeair.com.sg, William_Koh@Singaporeair.com.sg

Dear Sir,

We have reviewed your website, http://bohtong.blogspot.com. We will like to bring to your attention that you are using Singapore Airlines (SIA) logo and associated images without our knowledge and consent. This is viewed by Singapore Airlines as an infringement of copyright.

We understand that you used to be an employee of Singapore Airlines for 35 years and we believe that you had an enriching experience with Singapore Airlines and took pride in your job. However, as the postings on your website do not represent our company’s views, we request that you remove the SIA logo and all associated images from your website immediately.

Your co-operation will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Peggy Yeo
CCE (Crew Performance)

copy : VP Legal
: Snr Manager Crew Performance
: DVP Cabin Crew Operations


From :
Cabin Crew Executive Crew Performance,
CABIN CREW-CREW PERFORMANCE ()

PS: above email was sent to me on 27 Nov 2006. See I have complied and now my header is not an SIA plane but some rival airline's plane. I've always been a good employee and obeying orders from my superior has been my strength,albeit 3 years later. Notice it said images and logos but not SIA crew stories or else I would have to close this blog.

pssst! dono whether Peggy Yeo (the one who emailed me the above) is still around or not? Maybe promoted to be a SIA manager or maybe job hopped already and be some school teacher or something. Notice she aso cc a copy of the email to VP Legal.....wah I scared man,make my bolah shrank. At that time I aso consulted my lawyers and they said "jagan takot lah boh tong,you die die just tell the truth and swear to tell the truth and god will help you...cos we can't help you...cos maybe you are pok kai (broke) and can't pay us.....'aiya' they said SIA know 'you ain't got no money' and suing you will be a joke'......my lawyer frens are sooooo funi one.

_____________________

Ex IFS Enchik Gregory Chong pt. 2

I don't mean to open up old wounds re: Gregory Chong but this ex stewardess email me the following:

Dear Boh Tong,

Many thanks for your prompt reply .. Enchik .. my ex lover!? .. I dont think so, he was my IFS! Infact he was one of the best IFS i worked with.

THE TEAM DRAMA:

Gregory Chong was accused by one of the team's FSS (can't even remember her name) for molesting her (I AM PRETTY SURE THAT WAS THE ACCUSATION ..MIND YOU IN HAS BEEN MANY YEARS)... both me and another FSS was called in as witnesses by the union for the hearing.. I was of course all for Greg as there were to many loopholes in her story and plus on more than one occasion when he was accused of being with her, he was with the FS and myself ...

That's all ... i just wanted to know if he is ok and what happened after...

You are right Boh Tong he was a nice man, on the ball , but a very very very very nice man!

I will give you an update of mylife after SQ in another email ... and you are right there is a life after SQ!

Ex SIA stewardess.

Ex IFS Enchik Gregory Chong

Talking about Enchik Chong,that bugger is helluva character. I mean it in a nice way. Even an ex stewardess is looking for him (see posting below).

Gregory or Enchik as he was affectionately known is already retired and is doing...dono what la! Heard he is a security guard now.

Greg was a small sized IFS but packed with deadly Chinese martial art. He was a kung fu fighter,very agile and power packed. He could easily handled 2 to 3 ang moh sized guys. I had seen him in action before,beating up Honkies in Kowloon areas.

However, Enchik Greg is a nice quiet soft spoken type of person but must warn you not to provoke him. He was a conscientiuos worker,one willing to die for his friends,family and employers. Girls loved him not for his looks (but he was quite humsup leh) but for his reserved and quiet nature as well as his kung fu protection.

He got the nickname of Enchik because he was a sergeant in the army before joining SIA. Enchik is the Malay equivalent of Mr. and an NCO (non commisioned officer lah stupid)is nicknamed as Enchik.

Enchik if you happened to read my blog please email or leave a comment on how to get in touch with you (chances are Enchik don't have a computer).

Can someone who knows ex IFS Gregory Chong's contact please leave it in the comment space below,thanks. The ex stewardess below is asking for help.

Dear Boh Tong,

My name is xxxx. I was a former FSS with SQ, joined 1995, left in 2000.

I came across your blog and must admit that I not only found it interesting but entertaining as well ... it certainly made me laugh.

I was wondering if you have any idea where and how I could get in touch with Gregory Chong (Enchik), do you know if he is still flying .. retired ..

Looking forward to reading your blogs and hearing from you.

Sincerely

xxxxx ( sorry cannot publish her name otherwise a lot of buayas will try one)

Don't talk cock for once please

Let's move away from the subjects of unionism and tech crew-ism la and talk about the early retirement scheme offered by SIA recently.
The offer of max $250k for a capt is a joke. Captains draw an average of 15k in basic pay. From the age of 50 to 65 (15)a captain with SIA could have easily drawn a total salary of $2.7 million (by the time he retires at age 65) Minus 25% for income tax he would still pocket around $2 million.This is not inclusive of allowances. In this context, a capt would be a cock to accept the early retirement. Unless he is a few years away from his retirement he would not accept it. But in such a case do you think SIA would pay him $250k? It will be pro-rated.
As for cabin crew and general staff it's also not worth taking the ER (early retirement) Assuming a cc earns a basic pay of $2k and at age 50 he would be paid 25 months of his basic which is $50k. No biggie mah. What can one do with 50k these days? Same goes for the general staff.
However,one has to consider this....if there are few takers,the company may be left with little choice but to retrench the staff (if the current business situation deteriorates). Retrenchment means no yearly free tickets and the stigma that comes with it. Simply means you are inefficient and the company got rid of you.
But there are talks of money making opportunities by some retired CCEs outside of SIA. Of course there will always be but are you good and lucky enough to be like them?
When you leave SIA, don't think of becoming taxi drivers or security guards or work in 7-11 stores. Spend your time productively. I believe like someone just said that "the air outside of SIA is sweeter"
Go for it man if you are asked to leave SIA!

Y do ppl wanna be unionists?

Do u ever wonder y would any crew in their right mind would want to be unionists? It's not like being unionist one would get paid (except for the president and general secretary). In the case of Alan (president) his union allowance is much lesser than the meal allowances and incentive flying allowances that he sacrifices. These unionists have to give up some of their flights and time to serve the members...and all for free. What do they get in return? Answers are curses,accusations of being favoured by management,eyeing for fast promotions etc.
In the process fighting for the union leadership,the crew becomes bitter enemies eg. Between Alan's camp and Eddie's. So what the heck?

No misconduct la vice chairman is a good man.

SIASU cabin crew chief Alan Tan has cleared the air regarding his vice-chairman alleged "abused of power" Click here for full story.

Dolly Parton & Kenny Rogers - Islands in the stream

Sing along lah....

Baby, when I met you there was peace unknown
I set out to get you with a fine tooth comb
I was soft inside, there was somethin' going on

You do something to me that I can't explain
Hold me closer and I feel no pain
Every beat of my heart
We got somethin' goin' on

Tender love is blind
It requires a dedication
All this love we feel
Needs no conversation
We ride it together, ah-ah
Makin' love with each other, ah-ah

Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in-between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me to another world
And we rely on each other, ah-ah
From one lover to another, ah-ah

I can't live without you if the love was gone
Everything is nothin' if you got no one
And you did walk in tonight
Slowly loosen' sight of the real thing

But that won't happen to us and we got no doubt
Too deep in love and we got no way out
And the message is clear
This could be the year for the real thing

No more will you cry
Baby, I will hurt you never
We start and end as one, in love forever
We can ride it together, ah-ah
Makin' love with each other, ah-ah

Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in-between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me to another world
And we rely on each other, ah-ah
From one lover to another, ah-ah

Sail away
Oh, come sail away with me

Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in-between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me to another world
And we rely on each other, ah-ah
From one lover to another, ah-ah

Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in-between
How can we be wrong
Sail away with me to another world
And we rely on each other, ah-ah
From one lover to another, ah-ah

"Singapore Captain"

S'pore Capt is a regular visitor to my blog and has contributed constructively in the comment section. Here are a few examples :

Singapore Capt has left a new comment on your post "Resolving hostilities between tech and cabin crew":

yup. There are almost 2000 tech crew, simple mathematics will show that there will be some tech crew with bad attitude, its human nature. And people tend to talk and bitch about how crap some crew are. Truth is, there are more tech crew who are on good terms with cabin crew now.

In London, some of us do go for famous duck rice with Cabin crew, not the most famous Four seasons cos we banned them ourselves, but their friendlier neighbour.

Singapore Capt has left a new comment on your post "Resolving hostilities between tech and cabin crew":

you guys have no back bone and just follow cc to new restaurant for discounts.i think thats more factual


We ban four seasons duck rice cos of the bad attitude of the staff over there. And we patronise their neightbour not because of discount but because they provide much better service. And btw, its not cc who brought us there. Its our senior TC who introduced us to four seasons and also thru the Tech Crew network that we banned four seasons

So before you rant here, please do your homework by finding the right information.

Singapore Capt has left a new comment on your post "Some didn't become captain.":

the reason being in the past, First Officers do not need a ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot License), and to qualify as a Capt, u need ATPL, but after flying for so many years, these FOs brains are no longer that active and they find it difficult to pass the ATPL exams. Now, all FOs have to take their ATPL exams during their cadet flight training days.

A Singapore Capt clone:

Singapore Capt said...
you are pissing me off,can you just F off and try be more human.you the cockpits are worst,no manners,arrogant and ask for everything food,drinks,amenities,newspapers whatever which is free.always eating and sleeping in the cockpit
go trash yourself before commenting about PPS pax.F.. Y..

Friday, August 07, 2009 9:35:00 PM

Come la people comment responsibly ok?

Resolving hostilities between tech and cabin crew

I met my former trainee stewardess...click here

I was sent this email by a cabin crew. I thought it was interesting and should post it in my blog.

"To solve this problem the tc should bring their own food and drinks to the aircraft and not rely on cc. In this way,cc would devote more of their time to the passengers rather than the tc.
The problem now is cc is being made to serve the tc. May I ask you boh tong, are cc being paid to serve tc or paxs? Obviously not is it because if so why on the freighter no cc was carried to serve tc. So the main reason of safety is null and void.
CC was asked to serve the tc as a request from flight operation division. This would help the tc very much so they could concentrate on flying. It began back in the 60's as a request and now turn out be a duty.
Don't for once the tc is going to say they are the most important people on the plane. They also need the cc to assist them in an emergency. Take the SQ 006 incidence. It was the cc who saved the paxs lives and not the tc. In fact the tc abandon the aircraft and fled from the scene. The incidence cost 4 cc lives and no tc was dead. They and the control tower were to blame for the accident and not the cc.
In SIA,tc does not appreciate the cc. Why then should the cc shows respect to them? I was told a tc secretly photograghed an ifs who happened to doze off on a flight and sent it to the cc division. Has any tc never dozed off?? Many in fact because I have entered the cockpit in the middle of the night and witnesses tc sleeping on the job. So please do not point the finger at cc because the other 4 are pointing back at your face.
Tc are a demanding lot. They bullied cc and treat them worse than maids. The condemn and shout at cc if not served them on time.
Once and for all the cc union should look into this matter and chuck the job of serving the tc back to them!"

The air is so much sweeter outside of SIA..more

This steward is .......

Wee joined SIA when he was 27 yrs old. He tried for the job a dozen times before and finally he made it in 2008. He was jubilant and he vowed to make this his career. But he also set his eyes on being a pilot and being a graduate it won't be difficult he was told.
During training at STC,he excelled and was the instructors' pet. They like him because of his good mannerism and grooming. His batch girls adored him. But one thing for sure,the girls did not have a chance to be his girl friend because he was engaged to a sweet ex colleague by the name of Lyn.
The training took about 4 months and it was tedious according to Wee. Wanting to be the best trainee in the class,Wee studied very hard. In the process,he spent little time with Lyn. She was neglected and Wee felt sorry for her. Wee promised Lyn he would make up for lost time once he graduated and started flying.
More to come.....

Fair comments??

Got these 2 comments from an article in my blog entitled "Wanna a good crap and ward off H1N1 virus"

What do you guys think of these comments about SS Tan?

Anonymous said...

Poor SS. Used to speak up for his other gutless CCEs to the bosses. In the end when they started a Training Company, after they left the Airline, to train foreign crew of foreign airlines, they FORGOT to include him. This is a clear reminder to those who think its worthwhile to help yr fellow CC. They are all as PLASTIC as a mineral bottle. They're are not worth the time of the day.

Monday, August 03, 2009 8:53:00 PM

Not a Red Dot person said...

Hello SS is doing better in his new found businesses than all those ungrateful ex colleagues of his.
The late Cyril thought lowly of those ex cce who formed that 'Red Dot" co.Cyril was a manager of that co. but was ridicled by his ex cce who became his bosses.
You are right to warn others who think of fighting for their 'plastic' colleagues.