To JakeYYZ; Re AC's Rovinescu

[Don Hudson]

(Posted as a new topic to bring the thread forward)

JakeYYZ;

Don't disagree with a thing you've written in your message to Mitch, especially about CCAA not being an accident, (May 11).

Re "A gentlemen’s agreement not to poach one another’s business, is not what free enterprise and competition are all about."

All except for the "former" Air Canada. This industry has never been fully de-regulated. Its free market for only a few. If AC had been free of government interference, government policies and government/ministerial politics like other major companies in Canada like Bombardier*, GE, Thompson etc etc, we might have had a chance to fix whatever was specifically broken with our model, (to use a hackneyed phrase).

But part of what was "broken" in the past model was the constant and persistant invigilation by Minister after Minister after Minister, done with a level of ignorance and blunt stupidity bordering on negligence or at least dereliction.

If its to be free market "de-regulation", let's have at it. But its been special rules for Air Canada since 1988. The ACPPA needs to be repealed and AC needs to be set free in the same manner as all other real private enterprise businesses.

Rovinescu has characterized it himself: this is the true separation point...the true severing from the real Mom Corp - the Canadian Government, the moment beyond which AC truly becomes its own company, to compete in the marketplace, unfettered by the worn-out apron strings of Ministerial whims, backroom politics and instransigent bureacracies.

If the new, leaner AC that emerges from this process will be allowed to compete under fair (read "unfettered") rules that are the same for everyone, then I hold out hope for the draconian measures which are about to unfold for all of us, managers and line employees alike.

If its going to be the same, broken model where government "policy", (read "severe competitive restrictions") applies to Air Canada only, and we have to stick to the old broken-model rules that hobble Air Canada only, (which in the end, really means serving government policy through employee job loss and wage reductions), then we'll be back here again starting over, only with wages and benefits somewhere between 25 and 40% lower.

While I don't know the players (Texas Partners/GE Capital) and thus I remain aloof as far as cheering too loudly about their participation, I was cheering very loudly when Collenette and Co. were shut out of "helping" , and instead AC sought private funding and investment.

While we employees are going to arrive at an agreement sooner or later, much of the future success of these very significant roll-backs will be under a cloud until the Canadian government simply butts out of our private business and lets us compete under true free-market rules.

After offering the best service we can for our customers, our singular goal for Air Canada employees should be to wipe the smirk off of Clive Beddoe's face, just like his goal is to embarrass us and wash our face in snow every chance he gets. That's what its all about. (nothing personal here Wj'ers...on the flight safety level, we all talk...).

Don

*Maybe with the welfare granted Bombardier in terms of billions in taxpayer grants, loans, forgiven debts, and subsidies to buyers of Bombardier's products in other countries this may be a poor example...