Tan, same here, AC for many years, nor do I belong to the OAC, nor pasted an OAC sticker on my bag, nor participated in any emailings.
Yet we seem to have a squabble about the vote, you and me, and what the real meaning of that vote was about.
It appears very obvious now, to me at least, that AC management manipulated this NO vote into something other than what it really was, for their benefit, in this AC move to the CIRB.
There NEVER was an overall majority no vote based on the seniority issue, I maintain. There was a small group of the OAC political movement that were vocal about their interest.
AC took that into a press release, which they craftily asked ACPA to vette. AC can now say that ACPA and AC management were on the same page about the no vote, when AC comes before the CIRB.
ACPA has already agreed to the validation of the seniority issue by vetting the AC management press release and agreeing to the content. ACPA is now trapped, they have spoken for the entire pilot group.
Surely it is most unusual for AC to offer up a press release to ACPA prior to AC releasing anything. Was there no suspicion that there may be ulterior motives?
AC is saying to the CIRB that pilots, some or just the people that voted no to the Tentative Agreement, are declaring an illegal strike by conselling the no vote, and that the people did vote no did so on an issue not included in the TA. The result should be nullified. Should AC win, we now move to arbitration. The arbitrator may just impose the TA upon the pilots.
AC obviously wants the 777/787s and from this standpoint it looks like they probably have not cancelled the order. Otherwise, what is the point of going to the CIRB.
On the other issues covered by the AC memo ie work to rule?? what the hell, maybe I am out to lunch, but this is entirely news to me, just as the seniority issue was the reason for the no vote. It seems to me that there are some extremely dangerous political games being played on both sides, by AC management and political factions within ACPA.
So back to our previous apparent disagreement. You say that seniority was the issue, and I have always maintained it was not.
I now believe that it is clear that the order was never really dead. AC management found a convenient weapon that could deflect critism from them, onto the pilots. They wanted ACPA to agree to the memo about the seniority issue before releasing it. The press jumped on that.
Many original AC pilots sympathize with the sentiment, and probably went along with that idea. I don't believe that there is proof that seniority really was the issue, and the only thing would be for AC to produce emails prior to the NO result to support the seniority claim.
The last week has be allowed to keep the seniority in the press, and to allow ACPA to dig a deeper hole for themselves by directing the discussion toward seniority. There were a couple of articles in the National Post and Globe & Mail, at least on this topic.
AC now takes the seniority issue to the CIRB to crush the pilots into submission once again, as was previous done when it looked like with our last (non-CCAA) collective agreement by removing our right to withdraw our services.
Should AC be successful, will have essentially hamstrung ACPA. They will achieved the TA or better, put ACPA into disarray thanks to the OAC group and ACPAs leanings toward the OAC cause, made the pilots look like idiots to the general public and seriously diminished effective tools that ACPA has for saying NO to AC management demands.
Seniority was not the issue. AC manipulated that into one. My opinion is that this is just one more giant step down the slippery slope that of the declining relationship that AC is constanting touting of needing repair. This is not the way to move forward to a better way of doing business. It is an attempt to beat the pilots into line by whatever means necessary. You will comply....or else.