FA@AC

The majority now are new hires. None of them understand how it came to be. I’m not saying that it shouldn’t change, but one might watch what one wishes for. CUPE recommended that FAs at AC and at Air Transat (among other carriers) accept contracts with the pay formula that calculates pay from push back to block in. They now want legislation to overturn what they recommended we accept. Embarrassing.

I find it hard to imagine that a cabinet minister would bother to attend negotiations simply to “monitor” and that there was never any chance that he’d pressure the parties to conclude a deal and/or suggest that he’d put words in the ears of the company or the union that they might not like what the government would do it they didn’t. I remember hearing a fair amount of bravado before ACPA walked itself right into FOS. Not all that dissimilar to what one reads online from some Canadian ALPA members now. No other labour group at AC did anything as stupid. Not even CUPE. I’m sure you’re in good hands with ALPA, but I’d still be a bit concerned by some of the stuff being put out in their press releases. Your MEC chair has pretty much said that higher labour costs lead to lower fares for the travelling public. ALPA economics, I guess. She has also suggested that pilots will be deserting AC in droves for US carriers unless a huge pay increase is won. Green cards are now a dime a dozen, apparently.

I think you'll find that my views on what all AC employees deserve are very different from those of AC management. I didn't say that wages necessarily should compare to those at other carriers in Canada--just that I predict that that is what will happen. More power to us all if I'm mistaken, but given that ALPA at WestJet settled for less than what many has hoped while the Minister of Labour was present at 11th hour bargaining I'm not as optimistic as you are that government will tolerate a strike for more than half an hour. What is your own expectation of what will be achieved? That senior WB captains at AC will win UA/DL wages and retain a defined benefit pension plan?

I don’t think that at all, but I do think that rightly or wrongly the comparators are more likely to be pilots at other carriers in Canada rather than those in the US.

We may well find that the Government of Canada sees things the same way. A Pierre Poilievre government certainly would, although the next ALPA-AC contract should be a done deal before his gang takes power. Our neighbours to the south fancy themselves as champions of free enterprise, but the USA would be viewed as the most socialist country on earth if one considered the airline industry in isolation. Massive bailouts after 9/11 and then again during Covid. Quite a different situation in Canada, and that might be relevant during negotiations.

I don't remember Duncan's friends in the Conservative Party doing anything to lower the onerous fees on travellers here, but oh well.

It’s procedure at some airlines to arm doors as soon as the bridge/stairs are removed from the aircraft.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-67862011

Inaugural flight had a weather diversion to MID.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/03/business/alaska-airlines-to-acquire-tk/index.html

Psychedelics, according to some media.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/us/alaska-airlines-passenger/index.html

https://onemileatatime.com/news/porter-airlines-florida-flights/

https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/vehicle-fire-on-montreal-airport-tarmac-sends-smoke-billowing-1.6472969?fbclid=IwAR2oc_z9vMu0D7dsuaMisx-Tk68-W3BjfoKYesKS21iEqdChaErNhaf1RRc

Pilot contract ratified. https://www.alpa.org/news-and-events/news-room/2023-06-09-westjet-swoop-pilots-ratify-agreement Swoop to be shut down. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/westjet-swoop-1.6871478