<< How come no one mentions the "BIG ELEPHANT" in the room ... when it comes to the propagand e-mails? >>

Personally, I think it's not so much as a big elephant in the room, but literally a poisonous Frog hiding in the Bamboo. The company is allowing this HKG brouhaha to go on because it's a great smoke-screen, keeping the spotlight off the real bug-bear (insecte-ourse?) of Paris. Why? Because the French courts just held that two airlines who have expat employees in France must follow French labor law in dealing with them. And believe me -- French labor law would eat Fred Smith for lunch -- with a nice Chianti and some fava beans. The company NEEDS this LOA, because without it, negotiations with the host countries will be dead in the water. Without the LOA, FDA pilots will be protected by, and FDX will be subject to, foreign labor laws. And why do you have to go on VIPS and sign the Little Agreement which says "I promise to sign the Big Agreement to be bound by U.S. labor law" even BEFORE you can bid HKG or CDG? Because they want to be sure you'll follow through on protecting them from foreign labor law. If you sign the Little Agreement and then fail to sign the Big Agreement, you're seat-frozen for two years (bad dog!). And if you should perform one scintilla of compensated work in the foreign country before signing, THE ENTIRE AGREEMENT IS VOID AND YOU'RE NOW PROTECTED UNDER CDG/HKG LABOR LAW. Follow the money, folks ...