Guest V1 Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Milton has no clue? He says, "Milton went further during a conference call, accusing some union leaders of "burying their heads in the sand" given the hard times the airline industry has faced." Has he never heard how a public figure is suppose to talk. Try this! The men and women at Air Canada and their management made their best effort to come up with a solution to the real challenges faced by this Airline. We all regret the events of the last 24 hours but we believe that together we will emgerge stronger and more united and that this Canadian icon will be restored for the benefit of all Canadians. Like that Robbie, put your hard on away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dagger Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 All the pious talk in the world isn't worth a damn to unions which believe Air Canada is still a Crown corporation, that nothing has changed from 1987. Most of the unions still believe that their entitlements are iron-clad. Do you seriously believe that another week of negotiations would have made any difference to Pam Sachs or Buzz Hargrove? Look at Hargrove's big concession earlier this week. Okay, lay off people, but you have to top up their salaries. Okay, we'll forgo an increase we haven't started to collect. That's it! Every other union at every other airline understands the reality, but at Air Canada, it's all Crown Corp. The government will protect us - NOT THIS TIME The company will sell off more assets to pay our salaries - NOT THIS TIME, the creditors now own the assets, baby. Fifteen years of obstinance have come down to this. One of two things will happen. Air Canada will liquidate or it will reorganize as per the plan, because the creditors have no incentive to convert debt to equity or lower lease rates for equity unless the new business plan makes sense. It will only make sense with the kind of labor restructuring that is occurring at other carriers. It's that simple. There is no "Third Way". The employees can't afford to buy this airline, not in the current circumstances. The government isn't going to reregulate air travel - not in a million years. This industry is volatile. Westjet employees accept that. They get part of their compensation through profit sharing. If times are good, they are paid exceptionally well. If times suçk, they stand to get less. They share the risk in a risky industry. They are still guaranteed a good portion of their income in good and bad times, but it is implicitly recognized that their company is entitled to make a clear profit for shareholders. This was never the case at Air Canada post privatization. At the first whiff of a decent year, the unions were lining up to take away every cent of that. In bad times, with the exception of ACPA, there were resistant to the notion that they had anything to give to help the company. So maybe leadership is not about making pious, meaningless, empty statements, VI, maybe it's about getting up and saying that the road to the promised land is going to require sacrifice by all, not just by "the other guy" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kevbert Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 The time for pleasantries are over. The company declared it was unable to pay it's bills going forward. This should have been the wakeup call for the unions. But instead you have guys like Hargrove who said the company should have told them they had bankruptcy financing. Buzz should give his head a shake - bankruptcy financing only exists because you are bankrupt. It's not a free handout there to pay your wages and keep running the status quo. The lender expects to get a return. If Buzz truly cared about ensuring his members have jobs, he would get to the bargaining table and now. One labour strife will damage the company beyond belief and most (if not all) of his members will be out of a job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest V1 Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Do you seriously believe that another week of negotiations would have made any difference to Pam Sachs or Buzz Hargrove? No, I didnt suggest that. I do say that now is the time for everyone to rally together under one leader and try to save what is left. It is not the time for bold brash statements of blame from Milton. Job one is this process, if we have any hope, is to replace Mr. Milton with someone who can actually lead people. For all of his good qualities, and I think he has many, the one that he needs now is lacking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest acj Posted April 2, 2003 Share Posted April 2, 2003 Unfortunately ACPA is still unable to get a grip on the new realities and apparantly offered very little to help AC alleviate the crisis. It's a shame that the JAZZ pilot union proposal has not received more attention - it met all of Milton's stated requirements and was focused on a TRUE low cost model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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