A letter from 10 concerned YYZ Pilots
Good Morning All:
I received this from a friend of mine who lives in YYZ.
It is an interesting read and deserves a serious discussion other than labelling it as "wet".
Ask yourself this if the negotiating team resigns who is willing to step up into the void? Would you be willing to do the "donkey work" of negotiating? A professional negotiator always comes into discussion but who will lead them? Who will take the time to tell them the difference between pilots working conditions as to a construction worker?
If you do decide to strike how much money have you put aside as you might have one to three months without income? Are you 100% committed to the support of a strike?
If you are going to vote for a strike, remember this it is analogous to giving the military release of non-conventional weapons as you only do it once and in the end the survivors will envy the dead.
This e-mail summarizes the discussions of 10 pilots who are all Toronto
based with just under 5 to 33 years of service and are EMJ F/O's up to B777
Captains and each supports the tentative agreement. A couple have done union
work in the past, most have not, and one was in management for a period of
time. The only common denominator of the group (other than flying for Air
Canada) is golf and the occasional beer.
Regrettably we must issue this e-mail anonymously. One pilot in this group
has already been the subject of harassing phone calls from a person (or
persons) who will not identify themselves and the rest do not want that to
happen to them or their families.
Each has identified different things they would have like to have seen (for
example, a return to full pay for a sick day) but on balance believe this is
a good deal with considerably more money up front than all were expecting.
The discussion in this open e-mail will cover what appears to be the most
controversial issues (pension and LCC) and then discuss what could happen if
we turn this TA down.
Business is fundamentally simple. Your revenues must exceed your expenses or
you go out of business. To grow your business your revenues must
consistently exceed your expenses to allow you to secure the loans needed to
make new capital purchases or arrange long term leases (like new airplanes).
Air Canada has not consistently done that and despite what many think it is
not a strong company. Most profit recently has been the result of gains on
foreign exchange which works when the value Canadian dollar against other
currencies is increasing. Not so good when the opposite is happening.
Hence, Air Canada needs to secure reliable revenues and one path they have
chosen is an LCC. If any are in doubt of the revenue LCC's can generate look
no further than the current issue of Airline Business. WestJet is number 9
on the list and woe betide us if they move into the overseas leisure market.
Read that article (it can be found on line) and it will become clear that if
the LCC is successful it will result in a number of jobs that all pay more
than any other LCC in Canada pays.
Air Canada needs that revenue stream to be able to afford the 787's on
order. Without the revenue AC will not be able to obtain the necessary
financing at a reasonable interest rate to get them and Boeing certainly
will not have trouble placing those aircraft with another airline.
One pilot has spoken to a friend at Sunwing who has said if we don't want to
do this LCC, he knows a lot of guys that will.
Pension changes are always difficult but clearly there are problems with
Defined Benefit pensions across the world. Despite the fact that the defined
benefit system is superior there are two questions that must be answered:
First, will Air Canada survive in its present form without a change to that
liability? Possibly not. Second, what form of pension is best for new
pilots in this environment? Likely the Defined Contribution. This type of
pension will allow them a flexibility and mobility that those enrolled in
the defined benefit plan do not have.
Consider what may have happened when Air Canada was in CCAA. Many pilots,
particularly ones with considerable command time may have chosen (like a
number of pilots did) to move off-shore to other jobs but felt they were
tied to Air Canada by the pension. The ones who did not investigate the
possibilities will first cite family reasons for not leaving, but second,
pension.
Rather than traditional dogma the question that must be answered is 'what is
the best choice for the new pilots to Air Canada?'
One last point. Many are under the misconception that new pilots are
required to enter the pension to fund the retired pilots. This is not the
case with a funded pension and this TA takes steps and provides a formula to
ensure an ongoing pension. Consider the former Canadian Pilots pension.
Nobody has been enrolled in that pension since before the merger but it is
ongoing.
What will happen if we turn down this TA?
Nobody can accurately answer this question but the ongoing disintegration of
the MEC will likely cause a number of ACPA volunteers directly involved in
the support of negotiations to resign and then we are really moving into the
unknown.
The current tentative agreement will disappear and negotiations will start
anew and likely with considerable acrimony.
At some point Government agencies will become involved and we could very
quickly lose control of our negotiation process. If anyone thinks this is
unlikely just look at some of the attacks on labour currently underway all
across North America (and Europe for that matter).
Additionally, this TA has much improved Scope language that was likely only
possible because of the LCC agreement. If we refuse to accept LCC Air Canada
will probably start it up anyway using former SkyService pilots and likely
poach pilots from Sunwing and CanJet. They will probably be happy to come to
the Air Canada LCC at those pay rates.
Nevertheless, no pilot at Air Canada will have access to those jobs and the proposed
scope language will disappear. The long-term ramifications of that occurring
are frightening.
Finally, the 'no' side of this argument has not identified themselves, as
far as anyone knows does not have any way of influencing the current
negotiating committee and have not given any indication of what their plan
is to secure an agreement better than this one -- something Air Canada will
fight tooth and nail.
We are in the business of risk management. In this environment of $100-plus
oil the risk in turning down this agreement is way too high.
Sincerely
Ten concerned pilots