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SW Saskatchewan | West-jet has blown Air-Canada out of the water because of all the reasons you mention plus superb labor relations. maybe it isn't a big thing in the US to get service with a smile but when West-jet came in with their happy face approach, it made travel fun again.
Three hubs? I can count at least six, each with their full component of overseas flights. And for a lot of political reasons it was impossible for Air-Canada to rationalize. Also for political reasons it had to carry a full array of airplanes with repair facilities scattered all across the country as a political payoff to some politico or another. It is not easy being red, white and blue or just red and white since our new flag!
But that is all water under the bridge-right now the same political forces are at work with a few new ones thrown in.
Big pay-offs and golden parachutes win no friends.
The CAW is spoiling for a fight with an adversary already on the ropes. That they are trying to show the auto makers how it is done is just a side-show. The real audience is the UAW.
They know the pension plan and Air-Canada is history, not much of an incentive to play fair when you have nothing to lose. The last thing they are going to be willing to tolerate is anyone walking away with anything-probably they would prefer that no one even walks away.
In Canada they are not afraid of losing their health insurance- not the same stick as in the states.
And we have three centre and centre left parties in Canada- labour does have a place to go and how the Liberal party plays its cards will decide who is the next PM. If too many votes bleed off to the splinter parties because of lack of support for labour, the Conservative party gets re-elected with 35% of the vote. Their choice is a no-brainer.
There will be no violence in Canada, that is not the Canadian way. A general strike if labour is not protected in the bankruptcy proceedings will happen with all the explosion of a wet fizzle, but the country will stop. Period. Close the airports and ports and trade stops- stop the railroads and walmart runs dry- the end when you are a country that depends on trade.
The auto-makers- will Obama not be required to give the UAW at least as much as they can get in Canada?
Fine, pull out and take all your business to the states. But won't that be the provocation that will force Canada to end NAFTA?
Can you get enough oil and nat gas from Venezuela to keep the economy rolling?
No, bankruptcy and a harsh re-write of the labour contracts won't fly in the US- too many implications.
Not only will the govt guarantee warranties, but it will backstop pensions for the autoworkers.
And Hilary Clinton will get her health care plan- take that load of the back of your businesses and the US suddenly can talk turkey again in any cost comparison.
Obama and the big three are going to do all they can to keep out of the bankruptcy courts- a bankruptcy that drags on for five years or major labor strife is a cost the US can't absorb.
A political solution is preferable, no matter how much Rush Limbaugh wants to get out their and give a few quick left jabs to labour's nose, it ain't going to happen. Loud talk makes one feel good but Grandpa Wen wants a big happy family.
But he doesn't hold any Canadian paper. Pity.
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Auto Workers and GM bankruptcy-WyDave
