I'm not a fan of unions, but at times they have their place. As pax, we've experienced a long trend towards being treated more as self-loading cargo. It's probably fair to say that the environment at AC hasn't been terribly conducive to creating a harmonious working environment for the employees.

Izzy Sharp makes a few good points in his book (at least, the exceprts that have been published thus far). He notes that if the workers work for you, then you (as management) should work for the workers. I doubt very much that's been the consistent case at AC. No wonder then, that the unions feel embittered at times!

But in today's expert, Mr. Sharp observed how opportunities can come out of economic downturns. Co-incidentally on the next page of Report on Business (page B4), Calin Rovinescue notes that AC needs to take advantage of the strong relationship with AE and the most frequent flyers, and that AC doesn't necessarily need to shrink back to profitability and that other solutions may be possible.

I hope Mr. Rovinescue is right and that a creative solution to the bankruptcy situation is forthcoming. And I hope that he's able to create a better working atmosphere at AC as well, for happy workers will most likely result in happy pax.