Pardon the very long post, but I wanted to note the end of the Berry v. Pulley saga (pending a still-possible appeal to the Ontario CA). An abbreviated synopsis full of my own editorial bias appears below, but should you need insurance against your IFE going on the fritz long-haul, feel free to grab the full reasons for judgement in their entire 567-paragraph glory at http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc...2onsc1790.html

As a traveller, I find a case like this interesting because of the potential for poisonous crew dynamics on the flight deck after an airline merges. I blame both companies and unions for this, because it is both sides that have built this labour culture in which seniority means so much that even minor shuffling of the list can dramatically affect your lifestyle to someone else's benefit. The disparity in pay and conditions between the top and the bottom of the typical pilots' seniority list can be so high that the first few years of a commercial pilot's career can amount to little more than an extended hazing ritual. The pilots negotiated this system and they earned the result: every time there is a company reorganization or merger the pilots' groups go mental on each other. It is a real potential safety issue IMO, and a huge burden to a merged airline as it can severely limit crewing flexibility for years while the tempers settle.

I find it a bit curious that this trial judgement has not been picked up in the media anywhere, particularly since it spawned an important Supreme Court of Canada labour law decision in 2002 (http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/...2002scc40.html). However, in fairness to the media, the claim was so esoteric and bizarre that it's maybe a bit hard to sum up in a news bite. I'll try to give the bare bones here because the story is so compellingly pathetic, and it's one of the reasons that the pilots' unions in general lost my sympathy a long time ago.

This multi-million-dollar waste of judicial resources is a sad little story is about how unionised pilots, when not tearing the throats out of their employers, can merrily turn on each other in even more vicious ways.

Briefly: Air Ontario ("AO") was bought up by AC in a series of transactions. By 1994, AC owned 100% of AO. At the time, CALPA represented pilots in both companies.

CALPA decided it would be grand to "declare" a merger of the AO and AC pilots' unions. Poof, you're merged, let's put all y'all in a single seniority list. (Oh yeah, AC has to agree to this... minor detail, right?) AO pilots think the merged seniority list should be based on date of hire (30 years AO = 30 years AC... and you can see why they like that idea. Forget F-28 service into YQT, try CDG on a 747 -- whee!) AC pilots, to the apparent shock of some of their AO brethren, were less enthused.

CALPA puts the issue of a merged seniority list to an arbitrator. The resulting list, if implemented by agreement with AC, would leave 85% of AC pilots unaffected, but the bottom part of the AC list would have AO pilots dovetailed in. Result: junior AC mainline pilots would have some of their bidding rights affected by senior AO pilots merged into the list above them.

AC pilots' reaction: stuff this, we're not helping AO pilots to screw AC pilots, and since that's what CALPA is trying to achieve then we're forming a new union for AC pilots only. ACPA was thus born in 1995.

AO pilots' ultimate reaction to this: start a class action in which everyone who was an AC pilot on the day the arbitrated merger list was announced is a defendant. The complaint, in essence, was that AC pilots had a positive duty to fight for the merged list even if it was at the expense of some AC pilots. It is a bizarre take on how unions work, but there you have it. Yes, I have simplified the crap out of this. I refer you to the full reasons for judgement in all of their gory, somnolent** detail should you want better.

The class action was filed in 1997. 15 years, untold MILLIONS in legal fees, a mid-sized forest sacrificed and obscene amounts of court time consumed to get to this point, a complete loss for the AO pilots.

**No disrespect meant to Justice Pepall. Something about silk purses and a sow's ears, yada yada...