Comments on: air cheap bastards

By: Tama

Tama — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 05:15:45 +0000

55 FOR AN OVERNIGHT IN NZ. SO THEY EAT MAYBE TWICE. AND WITH OUR PRICES HERE. NOT LIKE THEY CAN COOK THERE OWN FOOD WHILE HERE. MOST PEOPLE EAT 3 TIMES A DAY. CANT BELIEVE AIR NZ DIDNT LOOK AT THIS IN THE CONTRACT WITH FASCO, THAT IS IF FASCO AINT CORRUPT. DONT KNOW WHO TO BLAME BUT FEEL SORRY FOR THOSE CREW.

[Please try and avoid ALLCAPS in future- 王博]

By: NZer

NZer — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:17:45 +0000

They spend time in New Zealand, but Shanghai is where they live.

They are issued credit cards to cover spending in New Zealand. I think the cards were introduced as a supplement to their daily cash allowances.

I see the Shanghai based crew eating out in Auckland at exactly the same places that crew from other airlines frequent (e.g. Belgian pub in Vulcan Lane – the mussels there are very popular with Asian flight attendants by the way). I have also run into them out partying in Wellington. They seem to be doing OK for themselves.

By: wangbo

wangbo — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:45:38 +0000

Alright, fair enough. But there is still a huge discrepancy in pay rates for Kiwi and Chinese crew, and correct me if I’m wrong, but the Chinese crew do have to spend time in New Zealand on their Chinese wages, do they not?

By: NZer

NZer — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 20:52:19 +0000

I did read the article.

I also know several of the Chinese hired flight attendants who work for Air NZ.

They mostly seem to be relatively unambitious young women who are happy to be doing a job that pays above the Shanghai average while making below average demands on their time.

The comments here about NZ wages being appropriate given the high cost of living in Shanghai are stupid. The majority of employees in Shanghai work for wages that would be simply unsustainable in New Zealand – in many ways a good thing, since it is one reason why they are an economic powerhouse and we are a backwater.

Air NZ was (I hear anyway) strongly ‘encouraged’ to create local jobs in exchange for access to Chinese airports. Consequently Air NZ has an over-sized local crew base. I certainly know that few 40 hour weeks are being worked, and many of the local hires do other work on the side.

So Ms Zeng’s confusing experience aside I don’t see the big problem.

By: wangbo

wangbo — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:25:10 +0000

Might I suggest rereading the article?

By: NZer

NZer — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 21:44:49 +0000

So. . . err. . .

Why did they take the job then?

Presumably Air NZ didn’t snatch these people off the street and force them to work under ‘exploitative’ conditions?

Zeng Xiaojie excepted, some of these women have remained with Air NZ for quite a while now. Guess it can’t be that bad.

By: wangbo

wangbo — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 02:49:54 +0000

Except, Ben, that the flight attendants did have to live in New Zealand at least part of the time, and when they weren’t in New Zealand, they were in Shanghai, which isn’t cheap, either. Purchasing power varies just as widely through China as it does across the world.

By: Ben Ross

Ben Ross — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:24:04 +0000

When comparing wages between different countries, purchasing parity must be included in the statistics. Without doing so assumes that the price of goods and services are the same around the world. While 3.25 an hour is below poverty in New Zealand, this is actually a pretty good salary in China, especially for a job which doesn’t necessarily require a high level of education. When I worked in a Chinese hair salon for a month, my salary, had it been calculated hourly, would have come to 25 cents (USD) per hour. A more accurate report would have compared New Zealand’s Chinese flight attendants salaries to other Chinese airlines, not to those in New Zealand.

By: wangbo

wangbo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 07:59:12 +0000

Sorry Robbo, but the real world is a little more complex than that. First problem is the difference between competitive advantage and exploitation. The wages offered to the Chinese crew, as they were reported, amount to exploitation. You’d probably have to live in China and have some knowledge of the real cost of living in cities like Shanghai and Beijing to know that. Secondly, in a market like China’s, if Air NZ is even perceived to be exploiting Chinese workers, regardless of whether it really is or not, then Air NZ can kiss whatever competitive advantage it may have ever had goodbye. If Air NZ wants to stay in business here, it has to make sure everything it does is fully above board and on the level and that it’s corporate nose is kept meticulously clean.

And besides, the EC does negate NZ’s competitive advantage through it’s massive agricultural subsidies. There’s no argument for you there. Try a better example.

By: Robbo

Robbo — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 04:57:23 +0000

This is p-a-t-h-e-t-i-c!
China is a developing country and its competitive advantage – (remember that from Econ 101) is motivated people and plenty of them. To have them pricing themselves off the market because of this grating preachy ‘do gooderism’ is beyond belief. How would we like it if some EC farm commissioner said to NZ give up YOUR competitive advantage of year round pastoral farming and put your cattle under cover for the winter – like we have to.