Mitch Cronin Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Once bitten... ...etc.. I was snowed pretty good when it came to the contract vote... and that came after I'd experienced the folly of concessions at CAIL. I'd said "NO WAY" to the notion of concessions used to assist in the bailing out of an employer who's thrown it all away. Yet there I was, come contract time, swallowing it all and voting to accept, based in part on foolish trust... Trust in the company to leave it at need, not greed... Trust in my union leaders to have provided me with all the issues and information they had available to them... And some more blind trust in simpler notions of fairness and decency. I was a fool. And all things were not as they seemed... It's been brought to my attention that may be happening again, and I'm concerned that I'm not seeing it that way... Air Canada's attempts to improve communication with it's employees seems to have brought on the master caution light and EICAS/ECAM warnings... for some... I've been looking at it as a reasonable attempt to provide an avenue for communication, that doesn't depend on union leaders with agendas of their own, who often (in my experiences) seem to misrepresent their members... Thus ensuring our wishes are known, and providing more probability for proper representation according to those wishes. Knowing my trust has often blinded me to fox-like behavior... if I assume that's at work here, aren't I still better off with the ability to participate in communication, than I was without? When it comes to issues that may mean such drastic change; job, vs. no job; cash upon retirement, vs. less, or none; ...Isn't having a say by voice or vote a good thing? I don't trust my union leaders to look after my best wishes in such serious matters. If that feeling is as rampant as I believe it is, why is that master caution light on? The company's initiative has been called a "divide and conquer" attempt elsewhere... I'm not seeing that? I'm only seeing an attempt to improve communication lines... and for employees alone, not the company. They've always had the ability to tell us what they think.. What's wrong with my eyes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AME Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 Mitch The very first contract I ever voted on I took the advise of tango foxtrot and voted no. The logic being, "If the company agreed to it, it's not enough" The process of negotiating in public is a double edged sword, on one hand you have all the info available to you so that you might make an informed decision, on the other hand, you take away the blink factor from the people elected to negotiate for you, as the company now as the ability to come to sites such as this and can gauge just how much is enough, and force your team to take something to the membership for a vote even though they know there's more to be had. or at least that's the way I see it Brett Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch Cronin Posted February 24, 2004 Author Share Posted February 24, 2004 Well... I haven't seen it as negotiating... asking for our opinions seems both harmless and worthwhile to me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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