Rish-sharing: It's inevitable

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Whether it's the profit sharing and share-based compensation in the US carrier restructurings, or the same paid to discount airline employees, risk-sharing is here to stay.

The airline industry is just too volatile to keep paying maximum wages through thick and thin. Until the last terrorist goes a shovelling coal in the netherworld, until all communicable disease is conquered, until the last recession is endured - in other words, until Utopia on earth is achieved - the airline industry will be volatile. It will be more volatile than banking or widget-making. Even WJ employees can't be too smug... imagine if SARS becomes a big issue locally across Canada... will people even travel an hour to visit relatives?

No, this industry has a character. That character is different than it was a decade or two decades ago. Some day, it may be more stable, but not any time soon.

Therefore, employee risk-sharing as part of everyday airline life is a fact of life and will be at Air Canada. If employees are going to take wage cuts, why not a profit-sharing program? The whole theory about this restructuring - the reason why private money is already lining up to provide New Air Canada with equity - is based on the notion that with lower costs, Air Canada should be profitable most years. Some would be better than others, to be sure. So there would be some profit-sharing cheques most years.

I risk-share in a lot of what I do for the people I work with. Some years are better than others, but you would be surprised at how well I still live and how soundly I still sleep.

What I am saying is that it's time for the employees to insist on a package approach to concessions - insist on profitsharing, assume some modest risk (80% of your pay would still be guaranteed). Make the success of the company your personal success, too.