Thanks but I do know how it works. WJ is a legal entity and it 'own' other companies, assets etc. WJ itself is publicly traded and 'owned' by shareholders. They can buy 49% of another airline, they can structure Swoop into any legal entity they like and sell the majority stake etc etc. All part of operating a corporation. Those shareholders you mentioned are interested in one thing - being profitable. If WJ can make a go of Swoop on manner or another and it is profitable to do so - then the shareholders will back them. If the WJ pilots (or other employees) can make that difficult (and they are trying) then Swoop may disappear.fish4life wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 8:59 amI don't think you understand how a publicly traded company works. WestJet doesn't "own" the company, a bunch of investors "own" pieces of WestJet so right now random people and investment groups own Westjet and put their faith behind a Board of Directors that give guidance on how to run the company. Now some big investment funds can buy huge portions of companies (10-20%) is a big portion and as a result they can require that they get a seat on the Board of Directors, Bill Ackman is an example of an activist investor that does this.MattK wrote: ↑Tue May 29, 2018 6:25 am WJ sells 49% to a foreign entity interested in the Cdn market, a further 2% to another investor and keeps 49%. No longer a majority owner, simply an investor and Swoop continues operations and grows. WJ still has a measure of protection on its bottoms side, ALPA and the pilots have no sway on the conditions or flying at Swoop.
Not saying that is going to happen but I highly doubt WJ is going to walk away so easily.
My point is that WJ has LOTS of options and, I would guess, a plan that includes many eventualities which will play out over time. I'm not saying I agree with it only that it would be dangerous to assume otherwise. So it might have been wise to somehow bring those Swoop pilots into the fold rather than jumping up and down and denigrating them. Would have been interesting to see if they could have been brought into the same bargaining unit, vote for the same conditions with a threat of strike and move forward. If WJ moves forward with a partial sale (as I mentioned) or some other plan the WJ pilots may lose control over what happens at Swoop and may find themselves with no right to fly the aircraft.