Should we feel bad for Air Canada Pilots?

[Hawk]

They had a wildcat strike this morning. Bunch of them called in sick en mass.

How does their pay/benefits stack up against other North Amercian and European pilots?

I assumed they were on the better end of the pay/benefits scale, but am I wrong?

And is Air Canada public or privately owned? I assume they're not as private as WestJet (our other national airline) but they're not totally public are they?

Just curious. Don't know much about the situation.

[Saintor]

Last month 2600+ aviation workers (among them 1800 located at Montreal) lost their job. They were maintaining Air Canada airplanes and now this business is sent in good part to 3rd world countries. Just saying.

I assume that if Aveos was making money, this wouldn't have happened.

[Hawk]

So.... we shouldn't feel bad for the pilots then, or we should?

[KahviVW]

Just curious. Don't know much about the situation.

Then research about it and educate us.

[Saintor]

So.... we shouldn't feel bad for the pilots then, or we should?

If they were all sick at once, yeah.

[Gus Polinski]

Well hey, at least they aren't flying into planets or anything....

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/inte...#ixzz1sItsITvv

An Air Canada pilot mistook the planet Venus for another aircraft and plunged his plane towards the Atlantic Ocean to avoid a collision.

A report released Monday by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada found 16 people were injured after the Boeing 767 dropped 400 feet (120 meters) to avoid an imaginary crash with an oncoming US C-17 military cargo plane.

[KahviVW]

Well hey, at least they aren't flying into planets or anything....

Does Venus have TCAS?

[Brendan@bwalkauto]

Does Venus have TCAS?

What would it even say? "Monitor Vertical Spe...emmm....Monitor Circular Orbit"

[ATL_Av8r]

What would it even say? "Monitor Vertical Spe...emmm....Monitor Circular Orbit"

"*woop woop* PLANET! *woop woop* PLANET!"

[.LSinLV.]

"*woop woop* PLANET! *woop woop* PLANET!"

[rammalammadingdong]

Air Canada is private.
however, Air Canada is in bed with the Government as the company is the only carrier that offers business class in Canada, so the feds can only fly with them - therefore the private company is in bed with the feds because if they go under, the feds have no other carrier to fly with - or the feds will have to bail the airline out as the federal labor minister deemed the airline an essential service because of our economy.

bunk.

anyway,
it's an ugly situation.
the airline owns the media because of advertising dollars, so only what they want you to hear gets out. rarely the story of the workers sees the press.

same deal with the Government. AC doesn't bail out AVEOS so 1800 workers are now jobless.
now the same Government that legislated the ground workers and pilots back to work are suing Air Canada for the whole AVEOS blunder.

wtf.

...and that is your $0.03 on the workings of AC.



edit - oh yes, the airline's credit rating has recently been downgraded because of all the bad press and findings as of late - yet on April 1, 2012 the CEO of the company was eligible for a $5 MILLION dollar retention bonus. Not so bad a deal for a company citing itself on the brink of bankruptcy......