Lt. Daniel Kaffee wrote:Take the good advice given above...go find one of those great foreign jobs before you get too bitter...
You should go on the AC pilots forum. read the posts...the anger by the misguided 50 or 100 pilots (out of 3000) is fodder for a great sociological study in denial, anger, bitterness....
Your father, and grandfather might not recognize the current Air Canada, just like they wouldn't recognize the current retail market in Canada....no more Eatons, or or Birkes, or Simpsons or whatever....Costco, Walmart dominate the market....
The market is changing and you are blaming that on Air Canada. Sorry buddy, your anger is misplaced. Blame you parents, siblings, neighbors, and other Canadians. They want the lowest fares...they don't care about Air Canada's 75 years of history, they don't care about how "good" Air Canada pilots are. They assume that all airlines are the same, and the only difference is ticket price.
If you want a constructive outlet for your anger, try the federal government, who hasn't had a coherent aviation policy in decades, continues to suck blood out of the industry like a leech, and almost invites Canadians to who live near the US border, to travel thru the USA.
Adapt or die.
You know, I have been around this industry for 30+ years, and I have heard these comments time and time again. In fact, I am surprised that you actually believe them... LCC is a smoke screen, the "street" knows it, you know it, and I know it. As Big P said above, it takes an entirely new way of doing business to go the LCC route. Quite frankly, AC management has neither the skills nor the desire to see LCC succeed, it will be a tool to bleed the other airlines out of existence.
The wages, while being a variable cost, are so minimal that they do not represent a real gain, especially when you add the "further reductions" attributed to poor moral. This is a service industry remember. If you look closely at AC, what is the one area that has not changed??? It didn't change in CCAA, and it has not changed during cost transformation - Management structure. LCC's survive because they have very lean, very efficient, and very responsive management. This is the very reason why Costco and Walmart are profitable. Do you see this at AC, I know that I don't. You cannot transplant the existing management structure onto LCC, it will not work. Want an example of this: AC does not even know what the cost of its individual products are...
As for transferring the work to some other Airline, that would constitute a breech of fiduciary duty, and it would be illegal under the present Labour code. Also ACPA scope provisions would not allow it.
A second trip through CCAA is highly unlikely, because CCAA requires DIP financing for exit, and who would finance AC??? There is nothing left to sell of any real value. Even if you could, it would push a significant number of employees down to the Walmart wages group, and what would they have to lose by striking... This is the rub for Airlines now, as wages drop to very low levels, turn over increases, and as we have seen, the likely hood of a strike increases.
Canada is not Asia, we have a labour code, and it must be followed. The mantra of LCC ala Jetstar would not be legal here. Rather than speculating on uniformed rumours, I think that some of the posters here should do a little research. You might be surprised on how misguided your opinion is...
LE
