'LET ME TELL YOU A FACT. When Canadian airlines management asked their pilot group to make concessions during their financial troubles, the answer was NO."
Gosh 330, I was with Canadian and I took 23% pay cut back there somewhere. Don't tell me I was the only one!
I was going to leave it at that but "fools rush in" as Elvis sang, and I must be one.
Under the new list I find myself just below an AC pilot who was hired 4 years after me. Under the old one it was 14 years so it's quite an improvement. I wasn't complaining however as I have learned over the years that there are much more important things in life. I know of what I speak because I ended up on the wrong end of a seniority arbitration for the first time in 1986 as an EPA pilot when CPair bought us. EPA wasn't in financial difficulty so it seems that that isn't always a factor. I might have ended up with date of hire but I might also have got cancer. Excuse me if I seem a little whimsical but I have seen a close cousin, age 48, die of that disease recently and it has reordered my sense of priorities somewhat.
Do you ever wonder what lies at the root of these disputes? Our spokesmen talk about preffered vacation and access to larger equipment but I think it all comes down to ego. As pilots we have big egos and it seems that we can only measure our sense of self worth relative to other pilots rather than the 95% of the world's population we are better off than.
So is the new list fair? Unlike you I have no idea. What I do know is that we are lucky enough to live in a country that has a system for resolving these disputes. It has produced a finding which one side thinks is fair and the other regards as a travesty and this was predictable. The process is not finished and will probably go on for years because, at it's heart it is an advocacy process and the lawyers will always assure us that there is a chance. We are a retirement scheme for them.
Time to stop rambling I guess. I would finish by saying to my AC compatriots that they should not be too upset. Since first getting dinged in 1986 I have enjoyed life immensely. If you are healthy and do not, then this will probably help.