Strike @ the airport

Finally! Hong Kong!!

The plane had come to a halt and the sound of seat belts being unbuckled could be heard everywhere.

We were pretty quick, being seasoned travellers. Besides, we did not have anything at the overhead compartment above us. Flight staff were suitably nice as we exited the aircraft.

Our footsteps were brisk as we did not want to waste time. We were hungry, both for food and for shopping.

Customs cleared pretty quickly too! That was really surprising. It was much faster than before. Maybe now, they are Olympic-trained.

Everything was hunky dory until we were claiming our baggage. The baggage for two different flights were scheduled for the same belt. Baggage for the SQ flight from Colombo, USA kept 'spitting' out onto the belt but no sign of CX (Cathay Pacific) baggage.

It was an hour later that we got our baggage and my stomach was growling like a tiger. Still, I had to direct and navigate everyone to the hotel. Not that I am a good navigator. In fact, not a good one at all!! Anyhow, we eventually got to our destination.

I did not think so much about it until the night before we were due to fly back to Singapore. It came to light the cargo handling ground staff were having a strike. The company had announced that they were going to give staff a 20% pay rise but at the same time, that they were going to do away with performance-based bonus (Hmm...where did I hear that before? Maybe in my past life that is of little significance to me now). Staff were not happy and therefore went on strike.

They went on strike from 1 pm to 4 pm on Saturday, 27th Dec. Well, my point of view is, it is silly to go on strike. The longer tourists and travellers take to get out of the airport, the less they will spend. From a macro point of view,it is bad for its economy.