CUPE remarks following meeting with Air Canada

[CD]

CUPE Air Canada Component administrator Ken Hopper's remarks following meeting with Air Canada management

OTTAWA, Feb. 6 /CNW/ - "During our discussions this morning, Mr. Milton clearly stated that he will honour the collective agreement reached between Air Canada and CUPE on December 30, 2002. However, Mr. Milton asked CUPE to meet with Air Canada to consider increases to productivity. I will take that request to our Component Executive before commenting further."

"Our members provide a vital service to Air Canada and to the flying public. They are highly skilled safety professionals, and are essential to the well being of every passenger on every flight."

"CUPE flight attendants have been a key part of Air Canada's success in the past. We will do our part to continue to make this airline a success. I am pleased Air Canada does not expect to solve its problems by reneging on its commitments to its employees."

"I will be meeting via conference call with our Local Presidents to develop our responses to Mr. Milton's announcement."

[DRAGOON_MYTH_SLAYER]

""Everything is on the table as I see it," Air Canada President and Chief
Executive Robert Milton told reporters during a conference call held after
he met union leaders.

Milton refused to say whether job losses were in the cards, but said "no
layoff" clauses in current labor pacts were part of a "bygone era."

"That was the old world order and I do not expect in airline agreements
anywhere going forward to see language guaranteeing job security -- Air
Canada and everybody," he said.

Union leaders were not so quick to declare job security clauses dead. Buzz
Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers, which represents 8,000
reservation and airport workers at Air Canada, said the union was not going
to accept wage rollbacks and layoffs.

"You have to downsize the airline, but you don't have to throw a lot of
people out of work," he told CBC news.

Air Canada has about 35,000 mainline employees and 232 aircraft.
Halifax-based Jazz, which has 4,400 employees and 91 aircraft, lost C$90
million in 2002.

The changes at Jazz and the other units targeted for ownership restructuring
could affect up to 22,600 employees.

[yulpurser]

Well,
I am happy to hear from Mr Milton that nothing is off the table. I would then respectfully ask that he and all senior management lead by example and publicly announce their own paycut . It will make this bitter pill a little easier to swallow.

We used to do fairly well. OK, it is a different world out there. But what happenned to all the wooooonnnnnderrfull promises of "new synergies" and "increased growth" and whatever else that were made to us at the time of the merger, and again during Mr Milton's spending sprees ? It goes to show that even CEOs do not know the future anymore than we do, and their promises are just their hopes and their own ambitions, not the reality.

The actual performance of upper management is not that great- at least not from where I sit: the shares have never been so low, we are crumbling under our debt, at the same time selling our best assets to third parties to meet debt payments. Mr Milton , appallingly, tries to make everyone believe that he is a great, tough, "the buck stops here" type of CEO. I do not buy it. The sorry state of our airline is not solely the result of outside circumstances; he and his team , since their accession to the top job, have consistently shown virtually no respect for us and have antagonized most employees one way or another, chipping away at one of the best assets this company ever had, the loyalty and pride of its employees. They never listened to anyone. Now they come to us crying they are broke, and it is not their fault, but we must be more flexible. Well , if all Air Canada employees have not shown flexibility over the last 3 years while this merger mess was so grossly mishandled, then I do not know what it means to be flexible. I believe that Mr. Milton's ultimate goal(and that of several major corporations for that matter.) is indeed to bust the unions. Pure and simple.

If I have to learn to work differently, so be it. But I want to see the same to be true all across the board, not just at the bottom of the feeding chain. It is time for the upper management to eat a little humble pie and shoulder some of the responsability for the current situation. For me, it is the only way that Mr Milton and his crew can earn my respect, rather than my contempt.

[Fly_Boy_YUL]

yulpurser,

I whole heartedly agree!

This news is really no news. AC has been selling off its assets for years. Again it seems that "world circumstances" are covering up an inept leadership, providing the excuse for our hardships and losses. It could not be due to the morons running this ONCE PROUD airline. Anyone can run a company when times are good & employees are motivated... looks like this gang have used all the tricks in their sleeves and have flopped.

Milton and his cronies had the chance to win us over with some words of thanks, and dealing with us fairly. Instead were are seen as a drag on the company, we cannot dress right and he stalls our contract negotiations for over a year.

I want to see him and the top leadership to take a minimum of double the salary cut percentage that he wants from us.

I want the cuts to be real, ie not in "share appreciation rights" or some other kickback scheme.

I want the multi-million dollar parachute dropped from HIS contract - if we lose... we ALL lose.

I will accept a pay cut and/or "productivity" modifications. I would hope that additional packages will be offered, this would a good time to take the money and run!

We must realise that our situation had to be known for some time. That our contract was negotiated with the knoweledge that they would be asking for it back... and more. It is this kind of contempt that I find disgusting. I feel like we were cheated, and now the ask for our help??

If I were evaluating their performance it would be:

DEVELOPMENTAL (accent on the MENTAL)