Air Canada Employee Travel Petition Part II

[Guest bif the rat]

ACPA MEC Infoline message.........

The second issue, and one that affects not only the pilots but all other

mainline employees of Air Canada, is the Company's decision to harmonize the

pass travel with the employees of the Air Canada regional network.

While the review of the pass travel issue has been all-encompassing, we are

very angry that the Company chose to include the extension of C2 priority to

the Jazz employees. This was done despite strenuous objections from ACPA

and other union groups as well as objections from within the management

ranks. Once again, Robert Milton and Calin Rovinescu have shown their true

lack of respect for their mainline employees and seek to curry favour with

another group, at the expense of the larger group, which produces the

overwhelming share of the revenue for this Company.

Not only have they done this without respecting the needs and wishes of the

mainline employees, the reason for doing so has been misrepresented to the

Association. During this process we were informed that the harmonization

was necessary because Air Canada was the only airline in North America that

does not have this kind of pass harmonization in place. The truth is, that

among the major carriers in North America, the issue is evenly split with

about half of the carriers supporting a harmonized system and the other half

maintaining a distinction between the mainline and regional employee groups.

This decision will have a serious impact on all mainline employees and their

dependents. When your dependents and parents travel alone, they revert to a

C3 priority. The Company's decision will result in Jazz employees having a

higher priority than your own family members. This is outrageous! In

addition to this, the combining of CRA and ACR into one regional airline

will result in a significant increase in the commuting of Jazz employees,

particularly pilots and flight attendants. Some of this will occur on the

long-haul domestic network.

The Company is very sure of its decision and I believe that the time has

come for each mainline pilot, in fact each mainline employee, to speak out

and be heard on this matter. It is the only thing that Messrs. Milton and

Rovinescu will understand - and it seems to work. Apparently a

Vancouver-based Jazz Flight Attendant was a huge part of getting this

accomplished. She put together a petition of a few thousand signatures and

personally met with Mr. Milton.

It is time for us to do the same.

Thank You.

Captain Rainer Bauer

MEC Chair