since 1971 - Kapers

4
Valérie Hauswirth
President of kapers
kapers has been around
for 40 years: it exists
thanks to and for you
and this is a real accomplishment!
1971
It was a strange year, 1971. Seemingly nothing remarkable happened
or at least nothing that found its way neither into memories nor into
the history books
Taking a closer look, this impression is wrong. In
the usual indifference towards history Kurt Waldheim,
former Officer of the German Wehrmacht,
a man who had committed crime to the humanity,
was elected General Secretary of the UNO. The
fact that a space capsule took people to the moon
for the second time already almost went unnoticed.
The Arabic Emirates become independent
from Great Britain and discover petroleum in
their soil, while a Bulgarian Ilyushin-18 crashes
upon landing at Zurich airport claiming 45 lives.
The British adjusted their currency to the decimal
system: so far 1 pound was divided into 20
shillings that were worth 12 pence each. A great
achievement to mankind! But nothing more important
seems to have happened.
What shakes history are the discrete stories that
take place in the cosy salons of the economical
rulers. Richard Nixon, the US president, declares
the Bretton-Woods-treaty as out-dated. The USA
in deep debt after the Vietnam War, are having
trouble meeting their dues. So far the gold standard
acted as currency system worldwide: 1
gold ounce was worth 35 US-Dollars. Unable
to pay one‘s dues would have been like possessing
no gold, as this would have gone directly to
the creditor’s hands. The USA let the bank note
printer roll and since the international trade was
dominated by US-Dollar its value dropped rapidly.
Due to Nixon‘s decision from now on all
currencies start fluctuating at will and depending
on market development.
The first impacts soon became a massive wave of
tremendous consequences. When 1971 an ounce
of gold was traded for USD 35 its value today is
USD 1.500. So in the course of 40 years the US
dollar has suffered a loss of 98%.
A real change occurs in the male population of
Switzerland. Exactly 40 years ago only a third of
the men entitled to vote decide against the right
to vote for the women. Besides a decisive asset
for the democracy it was first of all the end of an
incredible injustice. Until that day male and female
flight attendants on Swiss airplanes did not
enjoy the same rights (salary, career). As a consequence
the social partners of air hostesses and
stewards of Swissair merged and became kapers
on 01 June.
kabine 2/2011
So 1971 is indeed a year full of events that leave
their marks in economy and society until today.
Some of these changes are today’s standards. No
one would question the Federal Council that today
consists of even a majority of women. Still
there is a lot of unfairness around, in particular
economic ones. Companies are transferred abroad
(cheap labour countries), work on demand
becomes more and more common and astronomic
salaries of the managers have become normal. As
each individual one of us not powerful enough to
change the inevitable situation we accept the inacceptable
and even find this normal. Meanwhile
we forget that those who benefit fear collective
actions against these injustices because communities
bear strength and power. Let’s not forget
that kapers survived the grounding, witnessed
the burial of our national airline and played a key
role when Swiss was born out of the ashes that
were still smoking.
As the tenth president and at the same time first
female president of kapers I am delighted to
share with you in this issue of the kabine the experiences
provided by my predecessors. Georg
Zimmermann, our managing director, who has
been with us for half of our existence, gives us
insight in what he experienced.
kapers has been around for 40 years: it exists
thanks to and for you and this is a real accomplishment!
Valérie Hauswirth
President