Changing things

[No Brakes]

I was reading the CGAA training bond thread and thought I shouldn't just hijack it so here goes.

Companies will do anything for money. Companies will at least go to the full extent that law lets them and sometimes beyond if they can gain more and if they perceive it will be viewed as acceptable.

Currently, TC lets them do that.

How? By uneven enforcement of the law by some -not all- questionnable people (inspectors, directors, etc) whose jobs are overly protected, giving them "carte blanche" to abuse or favor anyone in the canadian industry. By vague laws intentionally written as to be left open for interpretation. For medevac, the concept of "on call" springs to mind, where in the present state of things one should be sleeping at all times when on call so as to be good to go and work for 14 hours straight on an hour's notice. There's always the "I can't work anymore because I now declare myself fatigued" card but then you get in the employer's bad books and they can get back at you by reducing your quality of life even more in a variety of ways (especially with their own interpretation of days off). All the cards are in favor of TC who can find pilots and management guilty of all kinds of infractions any time. This just one example and there are countless others. The vagueness of the laws give shady inspectors all their power.

By not doing anything, TC implicitly approves of their questionable elements and of questionable companies.

This is unacceptable to most rational and honest people. So the logical solution is at the root: the laws have to be re-written. By making the laws cristal clear, there would be no (or very little) room left for interpretation (wheter misguided or intentional as to accomodate personal agendas). TC's bad apples would have no power left. At the lower levels.

For the higher levels at TC, we are in dire need of an ombudsman or an external, independant review committee. Without one, accountability cannot exist as it's been going on for so long that the ol boy's club network is encrusted too far deep and change cannot come from within.

Now, inertia is a law in physics ans it also applies to bureaucracy. Waiting for companies to change their ways on their own is folly because they tend towards free market capitalism therefore will always put their own interest before anything else, including public interest. Public interest will only be a secondary objective leading to the first objective, which is to make as much money as possible.

That doesn't mean companies are not responsible of anything; if they don't do the right thing because it allows them to make more money and the legal system lets them do it, it just means their mentality is just as corrupt as TC's. It's a matter of philosophy, it's just the way they're made. Companies answer to a very different logic than normal people and their survival depend on very brutal economic imperatives.

But TC "represents" the people of Canada and if we let TC not do the right thing, we are all responsible for it and therefore we as a people cannot expect anybody or any company to be responsible.

But hey, good luck trying to affect change from within the industry. An individual can only accomplish so much. Especially when said individuals are at risk of losing their only income source in the process. And having a holier-than-thou attitude against the people who speak up is not only pretentious (let the first person who NEVER, EVER went against ANY of TC's regulations cast the first stone) but it really doesn't help solve the underlying problem. We need a small army of people like Widow (not that she's not doing a great job by herself, to the contrary), who can openly challenge the system without fear of reprisal. The workers in this industry, especially the newer ones like myself, are held hostage by the fact that our whole career is at stake if we make our voice heard. I would like, no, I would LOVE to come out publicly and write and say on tv how things are and blow the whistle as hard as I can. I would only cost me my career. Don't rock the boat kid. Keep sweet. Then, maybe, you'll get to fly the all-mighty [insert favorite plane here].

I've been in this industry for a short period but it is very easy to see how the dice are loaded.

Our laws are more than only flawed, they allow for people to actually die. I just don't know what I can do without endangering my children's future. The dynamics of the industry and the nature of the "pilot" make it so that we'll probably never come together as a group but I'm sure there is something we could do as individuals to make things a bit better... Any suggestions?