MAS workers to picket if deal with AirAsia inked

Some 15,000 MAS workers have threatened to stage a picket if the AirAsia-MAS deal goes through.

"If it goes on, we will have no choice but to picket. We are ready to picket!" announced MAS Employees Union (MASEU) president Alias Aziz (right) during a press conference at the union's headquarters in Subang Jaya today.

Alias said that the industrial action if it takes place will have the support of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) based in London as well as the Air Transport Workers Union Sarawak (ATWUS) and the Air Workers Union Sabah (AWUS).

Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) president Mohd Khalid Atan, who was also present, also pledged the support of the umbrella body representing trade unions in Malaysia, to the MAS workers’ cause.

Industrial action by transport unions have been known to paralyse nations as cargo and passenger transport slid to a standstill as had happened recently in France.

MASEU secretary-general Abdul Malek Arif (right) explained that the deal did not appear to benefit MAS and its workers at all, but appeared to be a honey pot for AirAsia.

"When they first informed us about the deal it seemed like a good thing, but what took place was not as told to us," lamented Abdul Malek.

'Union-busting move'

The union's major concern, he said, is the rumoured creation of a new airline to be dubbed Saphire Air in the MAS group of companies which they see as a "union-busting" move.

"It is believed that 80 percent of the MAS workforce will be diverted to Saphire."

This, he argued, will dilute MASEU's membership and break the management's promise that the deal with Airasia will not effect employees.

MASEU's ability to represent the workers will be affected as the workers in the new company will be unrepresented and may receive less benefit without a collective agreement in place.

Alias added that the move is not only in view of its possible adverse affects to the workers, but also to MAS as a company.

"We do this because we have previous experience (of such collaborations). When the MAS-Celcom deal took place, for example. We stayed quiet but in the end MAS was gutted, losing its assets, buildings and airplanes," recounted Alias.

Also present at the press conference were representatives from MASEU, ATWUS and AWUS.

The share swap deal announced recently between MAS and Airasia was downplayed as a strategic collaboration by the government and the low cost carrier, but the opposition and experts posit that it is a de facto takeover that has created a virtual monopoly in Malaysian air transport.

This is the second time in the last few months that a transport workers union have threatened to picket following dissatisfaction with the way their companies are run and concerns over the welfare of workers.

Previously the railway workers unions have threatened the same but put it on hold after the government promised to look into their claims.