Interesting topic from Power Play on CTV.............. seems there is some sympathy for AC vs The Harper regime.
http://watch.ctv.ca/news/powerplay#clip637994
Commentary
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CanadianEh
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Re: Commentary
Excellent link Old Fella. Worth the watch. Lots of excellent points made.
Re: Commentary
Glad to hear at least some of the public can get a little perspective of the real story. I always respected Robert Fife as a reporter in Canada, he always seems to give the extra side of the story.
Re: Commentary
Two interesting points from this video.
Pilot's quitting and going elsewhere - very realistic. Just the other day Emirates posted an article about how they are going to hire as little as 450 pilot's this year alone. If A/C pilot's were to get on the bandwagon and for example seek out to places like Emirates, Qatar, Cathay, etc, what would the new hires do? Because the big thing right now is that guys with decades of flying experience are fighting for their rights and working conditions. If they were to leave, would the 23 year old that is excited to fly an Embraer for the national airline really work this hard to protect his job and associated conditions? Something to think about...
A big plus 1 on what was said at the 6 minute mark on the video. If A/C is such an essential service in what I interpreted it to be the traveling public or as Raitt said, "health and safety of Canadians" then why the hell not respect the A/C boys? After all, an essential service should be treated with legacy conditions you'd think. The Govt is playing both sides, let's give them the right exercise their rights for collective agreement, and when they come around to do it let's screw them over. Perhaps A/C guys need to be creative with when they decide to walk off the job so "health and safety" of Canadians aren't affected on such an important week as March break. Sad, but perhaps a method to get around the Gov't hypocriticism?
I still want to compliment you guys, every time I hear your callsign called on Center frequency I'm curious as to how professional you guys carry yourself, and you guys really are handling it extremely well. All the power to you!
Pilot's quitting and going elsewhere - very realistic. Just the other day Emirates posted an article about how they are going to hire as little as 450 pilot's this year alone. If A/C pilot's were to get on the bandwagon and for example seek out to places like Emirates, Qatar, Cathay, etc, what would the new hires do? Because the big thing right now is that guys with decades of flying experience are fighting for their rights and working conditions. If they were to leave, would the 23 year old that is excited to fly an Embraer for the national airline really work this hard to protect his job and associated conditions? Something to think about...
A big plus 1 on what was said at the 6 minute mark on the video. If A/C is such an essential service in what I interpreted it to be the traveling public or as Raitt said, "health and safety of Canadians" then why the hell not respect the A/C boys? After all, an essential service should be treated with legacy conditions you'd think. The Govt is playing both sides, let's give them the right exercise their rights for collective agreement, and when they come around to do it let's screw them over. Perhaps A/C guys need to be creative with when they decide to walk off the job so "health and safety" of Canadians aren't affected on such an important week as March break. Sad, but perhaps a method to get around the Gov't hypocriticism?
I still want to compliment you guys, every time I hear your callsign called on Center frequency I'm curious as to how professional you guys carry yourself, and you guys really are handling it extremely well. All the power to you!
Re: Commentary
Loopa,loopa wrote:Perhaps A/C guys need to be creative with when they decide to walk off the job so "health and safety" of Canadians aren't affected on such an important week as March break. Sad, but perhaps a method to get around the Gov't hypocriticism?
AC pilots never threatened to walk off the job. The intent was to be very patient and wait AC out because of the political climate. AC for their part refused to negotiate and became impatient that ACPA had not done anything to trigger Government intervention.
In what appears to be an act of collusion between the government and AC, the company, tired of waiting for Government intervention decided to trigger it on their own by locking the pilots out in tandem with the IAM strike.
Government immediately swooped in and sent both parties to BA that tilts the scales highly in favor of Air Canada.
The legislation in and of itself is proof positive the Government is actively involved in trying to help AC rid itself of union contracts. At the moment (taking what they have on the table at face value) AC looks to be considering splitting itself into 4-5 separate companies. Spin them off with contracts with what is left of mainline. Just like Jazz, Aeroplane, Aveos.
For this to happen the company needs the pilot contract as it pertains to scope, shredded. A task now in the hands of an Arbitrator, hand picked by the Government, with instructions to favor company demands.
Sure not hard to come to the conclusion that the fix is in.
In the end investors in the new companies will do well. Anything attached to the old company? Well just think of what will happen to retires pensions if cash inflows to the pension are drastically cut.
None of this can happen over night of course. So waiting to see the dust settle before evaluating option is not risky. But yes. I have a feeling it will shortly be time to start looking for acceptable work.
