You have to remember that this is the same group of employees that, after a massive series of concessions in 2003, gave their negotiations committee a standing ovation at the Toronto LEC meeting. My money is on Air Canada's executive row and Robert Milton over at ACE. ACPA and its members fail to re...

Durf is a professional manager not an entreprenuer. Clive is a strong willful personality with clarity of vision and a single minded determination. Durf ain't no Clive. Durf's interview in the Globe was horrible. He came off as inarticulate and visionless. Whether this is who he really is or not rem...

Mandatory retirement is allowed, as stated by the courts many times, because it improves Human rights through collective bargaining. CA's revolve around mandatory retirement. Case in point end loading career earnings to enhance pensions. All unions do it because pension calculations center on the be...

Thanks Rockie. I don't think that it will be bad for anyone in the long run. It will upset a few with vested short term interests, but they will get over it. FYI - I apologize for the "tone" of the last post, but the sense of entitlement of some of the baby boomers is infuriating.

Rudder: The point is that some of the aged members of ACPA believe that they have some kind of right to the current way in which the collective agreement is written. They do not. There is no need to target a particular identifiable group to change the terms and conditions to more equitably distribut...

Rudder: You are wrong. Formula pay, the PBS, the vacation bid, are not "human rights". They are the current method by which a particular collective bargaining unit has elected to organize its work member's work life and remuneration. Taking the wind of the senior crowd's sails by changing the winner...

Rockie: The complainants are seeking a legal remedy to their particular problem. Legal remedies are rarely as good as negotiated resolutions to disputes between persons. Mssrs. Vilven and Kelly may have had to wait until they were "discriminated" against to avail of themselves of the current process...

Rockie: I don't think anyone would be suggesting that the pro-65 crowd is greedy if they were concurrently proposing changes to the Collective Agreement that would more equitably distribute the pilot labour budget among the junior and senior pilots. None of your crowd seems to be suggesting that the...

Br

JD: Pilots impose the bottom of the list seniority thing on each other, not management. If you have a complaint about the idiocy of the work structure at most airlines look in the mirror and then look left or right (depending on your seat). You boys do it to each other. The first thing most pilots w...

Somebody didn't check their brake energy chart - or didn't know one existed.

It is interesting to look at the current labour situation and how it contrasts with typical commercial finance transactions. Failing corporations generally have to pay a risk premium when they go to the market for financing. A failing corporation, like Air Canada, pays this premium to its lenders fo...

Lost in Saigon: If AC offers you a 50% wage cut what are your options? Will you quit, or will you engage in industrial action to show your displeasure? How long can you go without a pay cheque, and if you quit where will you go? North American carriers are unionized seniority based closed shops (pil...

Golden Eagle - a different set of challenges to be sure. However, airline pilots really didn't begin to be compensated extremely well until the 1980's. In the early to mid eighties a 727 captain at Air Canada earned approximately $120,000. Adjusted for inflation this is equal to $219,773.10 in 2009 ...

There is little doubt that the calibre of individual attracted to aviation over the last decade has declined markedly. It is tough to attract the best and the brightest when the investment required is substantial and the return is below average. If a new hire pilot in the U.S. earns $18,000 per year...

Mr. Wilson has identified the issue succinctly and yet both he and ACPA continue to try and force a round peg into a square hole. The fact is that capital can move and unions members cannot. In a modern globalized economy mobility is extremely important, capital recognizes this fact. Sadly, for its ...

FlyintheBug: There is a huge difference between a 400 hour F18 pilot and a 3000 hour regional pilot in the U.S. The biggest difference is that the F18 pilot has undergone an extensive selection program, is physically fit, is generally a graduate of an engineering program at a military college, and h...

There really is no hard line on the number of hours. However, in my opinion the U.S. regional carriers do not provide the same level and quality of training as you will find elsewhere. 3000 hours maybe ok if the educational standard is set very high. The question I am raising is that given the gener...

Generally, no aircraft accident is the result of a single factor. The thing that has struck me is the lack of experience of the crew. 3000 hours and you can be a Q400 captain? In the U.S. the training, in my experience, is less than exemplary. Cost pressure on training departments, poor wages and wo...

Dan, it sounds like you have a very good plan. Engineering is a wonderful profession and can be nicely integrated into a career as a pilot. The more education and experience you can get under your belt the more marketable you will become. Cat Driver, I like the way you think. It takes a little more ...

A trade unionist will never be convinced to be anything other than a trade unionist (although some see the light and come over to the management side), and a pro-business person will never be convinced that trade unionism has any merit. In my experience, unions, more often than not, protect those th...

1. The RCMP is barred by statute from forming a collective bargaining unit. Most municipal police forces have a collective bargaining agent. 2. Your union sounds like that it has considered the issues and its system is to be lauded. Sadly, most unions have not considered these issues. Unfortunately,...

Endless, I am confused by your remarks - surely you appreciate that just because a workplace is small doesn't mean that its employees cannot have certified bargaining agent. By way of observation, If trade unions were about protecting workers they would try and organize these small workplaces as wel...

If 25% of the Canadian workforce is belongs to a union, then 75% of the workforce does not. Therefore, the majority (75%) have rejected trade unionism. The posters that have supported trade unions have all expressed feelings of vulnerability as the reasons for supporting trade unions. I would sugges...

Sure. I also think Judy Rebick is really neat.