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Captain Jean-Marc Bélanger, chairman of the 3,000-member union, said in an internal newsletter to pilots that he conducted a self-assessment and deemed himself unfit to fly, based on his personal workload and sleep deprivation…
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Captain Jean-Marc Bélanger, chairman of the 3,000-member union, said in an internal newsletter to pilots that he conducted a self-assessment and deemed himself unfit to fly, based on his personal workload and sleep deprivation…
There is only one known cure for this type of employee mailaise: unfettered competition!
Time for a limited Reagan reaction.
A friend of mine flies for Air Canada. He lives in Edmonton and flies out of Vancouver. Once upon a time Air Canada used to let their aircrew commute for free. Air Canada stopped doing that a few years back. My friend now goes to work in his Air Canada pilot’s uniform on West Jet. Apparently he is not the only one as one day there were three uniformed Air Canada pilots on the same West Jet flight.
I am amazed at the absurd comments on the article in the globe and mail. I cannot get over that people actually think that way.
And here’s the best one so far,Texas
“2MuchTax
9:28 AM on March 19, 2012
Funny, there were pages of comments on this article when I first read it earlier this morning. Now they are all gone.
Hummmmmmmm…too many skewering Air Canada(we’re not happy until you’re unhappy) and the union?
Make WestJet the National Airline and stop bailing out Air Canada.
Look. We can spare the taxpayer the torture of being an unwilling investeror in this shoddy union-destroyed airline by simply allowing Westjet to make full international flight service and the AC albatross will be dead in a month.
Hopefully WestJet uses this occasion to expand their flight service.
We fly WestJet unless there is no alternative and will be doing so with four flights booked shortly.
Mike in White Rock, I do not think Air Canada gets any more taxpayers dollars, but I sit to be corrected if someone knows better.
We’re flying out of Vancouver on Friday and chose not to fly AC based on past experience.
The govt needs to stop restricting landing rights to foreign airlines and put this donkey out to pasture.
A friend of mine used to be a pilot, and he would tell nervous passengers, “Don’t worry, if my a** gets there, yours will, too.” Implying, of course, that he was indeed confident of making a safe journey.
I would not wish to take from the pilots the right to abstain from flying should they fell unfit to do the job, doctor’s note or no. But the onus is on pilots to exercise that right in good faith, and not to book off “sick” as a form of job action. The pilots who are booking off “sick” under these circumstances, at least most of them, are acting in bad faith. There may be some among them who are indeed acting in good faith, and booking off for genuine health reasons, but the misdeeds of their union brethren obscures that.
Really, given the back-to-work legislation, and the state of the industry, the only honourable action for pilots dissatisfied with their pay rate is to resign en masse, thereby giving up both union membership and all seniority they may have. If they believe they are not being paid commensurate with their skill level and training, why are they in the industry at all?
Why the hell does the government keep saving Air Canada? If their workers want to strike and bring down the airline, let them! Answer: most of Parliament Hill likes to fly on Air Canada, rack up air miles as they jet back and forth between Ottawa and their local ridings, usually in business class (that has been my observation), and then use those air miles for free family vacations.
The *biggest* mistake the government ever made was allowing Air Canada to keep its name when it was privatized. They should have been forced to rename the airline.
Westjet must be truly sick and tired of this. Worst part is you would think that a conservative government would deal with this problem in the right manner.
Air Canada pilots claiming PTSD! Gimme a break. Try military flying in a war zone and I might believe it, not trucking back and forth in peaceful skies with a contracted limit on working hours.
There’s the rub TJ, the feds should have NOTHING to do with Air Canada, now or ever again. They are a private business now.
Let them sink or swim on their own merits. Seeing as how it is Air Canada, WestJet will be able to pick up a fine fleet at bargin basement prices inside a month if this happens.
Let’s do bring “unfettered competition” back into the business of civil aviation. The Government has been interfering in the realization of this objective for years as it has taken every oppportunity to put Air Canada at a competitive disadvantage. These efforts include the saddling of the company with a politically driven merger with a basketcase rival in Canadian Airlines International (which ultimately forced bankruptcy proceedings), the continued requirement to implement the Air Canada Participation Act (that sees the airline forced to shoulder the costs of bilingualism and a multitude of redundant servicing centres), the imposition of crushing tax structures (unknown by other international competitors) and now the removal of the constitutional rights of workers to organize and negotiate related terms and conditions in a fair manner. The problem here is the Government, not the pilots.
I always have to suppress a very snarky thought when I fly Air Canada out of Fredericton crammed into some crappy little Bombardier commuter Dash something, and they put on that low quality taped message at the end of the flight, thanking me for choosing to fly Air Canada. There is no choice, not in the Maritimes. West-Jetters are lucky.
Chris
I know the feeling….back when they called it “Scare Nova”.
In the interests of public safety, I hope that each and every piot that books off sick is required to have medical clearance before returning to work.
I was wondering when the AC mess was going to be mentioned here… and I am in the midst of it.
First of all in regards to the pilots, Flight Safety trumps all, whether it be a pilot health, the aircraft’s serviceability, or weather factors.
In regards of the governments’ involvement with back to work legislation and the eventual CIRB rulings that will come down, it is of my opinion as an ex-Air Canada/Aveos employee, the company has the gov’t doing its dirty work. I will say with certainty, that AC will go to the CIRB with its wish list and get what they want, and if AC doesn’t, CCAA for sure.
In regards to the AVEOS closures. AVEOS may be a “private” company, but what many people do not know is that 27% of it is owned by Air Canada.
When Air Canada Technical Services(ACTS) was still part of Air Canada Enterprises(ACE), which was formed after Air Canadas’ CCAA to unlock shareholder value, they acquired some 80% of Aeroman in El Salvador, then investors were found and ACTS become AVEOS. Air Canada employees were given a choice to stay AC or goes AVEOS. The final transition date was February 18th, exactly one month ago.
In Canada, at the 3 main maintenance locations Wpg, Van and Mtl, the primary “customer” was AC.
AC “the customer and 27% owner” paid for maintenance to AVEOS, AVEOS paid Air Canada Corporate Real Estate rent for the facilities(ex AC hangars built during Crown corp days), and any “profit” that AVEOS made, well it went back to the investors, Air Canada and 2 investment firms. The hangars were full of AC aircraft, no room for other work.
I could go on about the working atmosphere between the workers, management and the higher ups but I won’t. Although the Team Leaders were ok, but….
All I know is that a lot of good people paid the price for a financial shell game played by AC.
I found out I was out of a job last night surfing the internet, luckily I got my tool box out Thurs night.
What happens now, we’ll see, all I know is that somewhere in this world someone has it worst than me, no need to complain….
At least this didn’t happen in the middle of January at minus 30 and a la Homer Simpsom “Wahoo! Long weekend!”
Cheers
The government had no business blocking the lockout in the first place.
Air Canada is not an essential service.
Gary: Apron8 is shut down, then?
I’m a tower voice, but on holidays, so therefore out of the loop.
Hey Gary, what’s going on in London with Jazz maintenance then?
Yukon, Apron 8 is now collecting dust and tumbleweeds.
Phantom, Haven’t heard anything about Jazz to be honest.
It is my self-assessment that you can self justify any behaviour, right or wrong, if you try. Even pedophiles are capable of self-assessment thereby justifying their behaviour.
Mike in White Rock – nope, keep the feds as far away from Westjet as possible. There is a great opportunity here though. Westjet should offer lower prices to uniformed staff from other airlines, and use the ad campaign “Fly the airline more jet captains fly” or “why do more jet captains fly with us? Maybe they know something that you don’t.”
No charge to their ad agency.
Truth be know; he looked in the mirror and asked himself the question; Who in their right right $ucking minds would fly with an airline that employed me??????
Put the Air Canada albatross out of its misery and return to the free enterprise system.If there is a demand for something whether its an airline or a hot dog stand someone will step up to satisfy that demand,IE: nature hates a vacuum.Air Canada is still burdened with employees that think that they retained a monopoly and free access to the taxpayers check book,well Toto those days are gone forever so get used to it.
“Time for a limited Reagan action”
Time for a FULL ON Reagan action!!
air canada, it’s too risky because you can bet dollars to doughnuts they be on strike when you need an airplane, sick if you need a pilot. Customer service be damned.
that’s why I fly Westjet
reduced spare mental capacity. that is just so funny on so many levels
Kelly, I’ve flown both airlines and can say WestJet is more consistant in one thing…being late.
Late as in hours. Late as in fkups between connecting flights. Late with apologies or replying to emails.
So all is not rosie at WJ. I’m not anti-WJ, or pro union, but one could cut 3/4 of the ignorant postings on here if people actually flew both airlines.
John, absolutely correct.
WJ is a good bet to be late.
Like you, I’m the farthest thing from pro-union, and love competition in every sector, but in my experience, well over 100 flights last year, the customer service at WJ is no better or worse than AC’s.
beever, yah, I flown a lot the last couple of years as well, including this one.
One thing I will say, the waiting area on the WJet side at YYC is a lot nicer than AC’s. AS well, maybe I just don’t see them, but there are only 2 men’s stalls on the AC concourse and many more (5?) on WJ concourse, then again these are the regional Canadair wings. I think there is one downstairs for the Bombadire Jazz concourse.
Reduced, spare and mental? Are they talking about me?