Originally Posted by
tracon
During previous labour negotiations, this board was full of "the market will pay what the market will bear."
It's time to pay up.
This opinion from supply and demand perspective isn't wrong IMO. Raising the ticket price a little bit will for sure soften the demand, but given how full the planes are, it likely won't really affect AC's load factor. Though it's pretty likely that AC has done some analysis and raised the price to produce the desired load factor, or rather, profit.
Another perspective is what I stated upthread. Unless AC as a whole can produce as much value as US airlines, AC employees won't get paid as much as their colleagues in US. This is why I don't think wage increases in general is effective unless the productivity can be increased accordingly. I think we have all seen how raising minimum wage has "helped the poor" since 2015 or so, across many provinces in Canada.
Let's talk about the low wages that comprise the first 4? years of the pay scale.
That's where a lot of pilots are at the moment.
This brings up another dimension of this issue. Union is often considered as a single entity, but in reality each member is different. This issue is not as simple as "pilots want more salary". People who are familiar with the last round of contract negotiation, and/or the Covid layoff, know how junior AC pilots are treated by their union. Is the low wage of junior pilots an issue between AC and union, or an issue within the union? I don't know what AC should do in this situation, other than saying that if there is a pilot shortage, then they need to make sure the new hires are getting an attractive offer not just in terms of salary and work conditions, but also back up from management when there is conflicts of interests with senior employees. My general opinion is that if you want your hard work to pay off, work in a company/industry that values performance, not seniority.
Pilots in J is a negotiated benefit. Feel free to join the negotiating team and try to get rid of it.
In my opinion, the only employees that shouldn't be in J are the marketing department and the executive team.
That benefit is flawed to begin with as it implies potentially bumping paid (cash or points) J passengers for employees. I don't care who gets empty seats or how high AC employees are placed on the standby or upgrade list, but if I booked a J seat, I want my J seat, and I detest anyone who take this seat away from me. This is a bullying move, period. I retaliate against by giving zero support to AC pilot union, and yes, I know this move has as much impact as the chance of me getting bumped from J, so I am half serious half joking.