Venandi

What's telling is the lack of progress since March followed by an immediate settlement in the face of an unanticipated "real strike." Had the government not intervened, and had AC known up front that it wasn't going to, the strike wouldn't have happened at all IMO. In essence, I think that's what people who blame the government are saying and if so, I tend to agree. AC's tactic here was to use negotiations as a delaying tactic to maintain the status quo (on a 10 year old contract) as long as possible and go directly to arbitration when that tactic eventually failed. For them, the threat of strike action was really no threat at all... until it was. Pretty hard to argue that the collective bargaining process is alive and well under those circumstance... I think.

I think you actually enjoy talking to (and baiting) this particular fish... and with a 30 second memory capacity it can't seem to reason that out. It invariably gobbles up every worm in sight and wonders why its mouth is sore. Close?

That's what AC was counting on and that's why the negotiations went on (unproductively) for 5 months. Collusion might be the wrong word here (even though I'd use it) but both AC and the government knew the planned outcome. Cool., suddenly you stand opposed to people who ignore the law... pretty selective with that I'd say. Here's the thing though, in the face of a "real strike" AC cut a deal within hours. If it hadn't been for the expectation of government intervention the strike wouldn't have happened. Duhhh It would be if you were a new hire or had low seniority... That was the point of all this. The real issue (I think) was people at the bottom end of the pay scale (AC its absolutely horrid in this department). In some cases a maximum crew day (14 hours), short hops and bottom of the pay list would net you about $6.50 an hour for the whole day. AC publishes top tier salary levels to the public for a reason. As an aside, there's a long history with airline unions throwing new hires under the bus for the benefit of higher seniority members, some have even agreed to A scale and B scale deals based on date of hire (DOH). It explains why people stay with the company, they eventually become seniority prisoners and new hires "pay their dues" to get there ... it's also why mobility within the industry is a career killer. Since seniority rules your life, age at joining can be a career killer too regardless of experience. In the initial stages of the pilot shortage that was a huge issue and most people couldn't understand why highly experienced expat and retired military pilots were driving dump trucks. There's a point to all of the above ( at least for me)... It was nice to see the union and membership standing up for new hires and lower seniority members because usually they get bludgeoned with impunity. In addition, it exposed the company's bad faith negotiations since March and the fact that they knew damn well the government would step in. The threat of a real strike is the only thing that works with them and in the absence of ignoring the back to work order, a real strike was never in the cards... and everyone knew it, Depending on your perspective that could be good or bad, but let's not pretend it wasn't a huge issue here. People who blame the government for this have a point, none of this would have happened without them.

Ya didn't proofread that did ya?

Well, I now know two things for sure... you don't ride the trails or fly a helicopter. It's a nostalgic idea though, I haven't done selective logging since I worked for my uncle as a teenager; he used horses.

The fine is excessive because they want to dissuade the average person from challenging it; you have to be charged to do that and most people simply can't afford their day in court when the stakes are that high. I think the government believes it will lose at the superior / supreme court level.

All of this is a matter of opinion I guess, mine is that it's unwise to mess with the current pay structure (and bidding process) that everyone is used to. AC has always counted on government intervention in any labour dispute... and they get it. They will also publish top tier pay rates and quote T-4s based on long haul (meaning high seniority) long duration flights; the union will do the exact opposite By way of example, the hourly FA rates (they serve up as examples) are actually more than the hourly rate I ever received as a pilot with FO status and relatively low seniority. There's a lot of propaganda to cut through... it makes my eyes glaze over and I've been out of that stream long enough that my opinion is of limited value anyway. That said: I think - If AC were to eliminate the lowest 2 or 3 pay levels bringing new hires to a reasonable wage and do away with the pay freeze on mainline transfers from Rouge, the current offer might work. As a practical matter, I doubt the FAs really want to track short duration blocks of ground operating time (for pay purposes) and then fight with the company every month over the inevitable discrepancies. Industry wide there are enough issues with mobility, LMO's and TFWs (particularly in the helo world) to fill a book. If I were to use an experienced surgeon (or any tradesman) as analogous to an experienced airline pilot in terms of job mobility vs pay, the only people you would find driving trucks during a critical worker shortage would be the experienced pilots... and that's because it pays better than starting over again at the bottom in a city you can't afford to live in. Clearly it depends on your age, where you live, and you're willingness to go overseas... for me, there was no upside.

AC will advertise an FA job as being $30 an hour... which sounds pretty good until you realize that your pay only kicks in when the aircraft is in motion. In other words, there's a lot (and I mean a LOT) of unpaid work which probably drops the actual hourly rate bellow minimum wage (in many cases). There's the old joke about pilots too... if you can see a pilot, he's not getting paid. A bit like a carpenter only being paid when he has a hammer in his hand or a welder when the torch is burning. Pairings are a function of seniority with the worst trips going junior and those would be multiple short hops with long station stops. At the extreme end of it I recall one in particular... it was a 14 hour crew day with about 3 hours of paid flying time....$6.42 per hour for a FA. I suppose you could stick to your guns and say: "hey, nobody made you take that job" why not quit. The reason is seniority rules your life and it's company specific. Leave the company you have seniority with and you're back to apprentice wages at your new one. Why? Because they can. It makes for interesting lunch time discussions with some of the tradesmen I've worked with. Why is an experienced pilot working as a carpenter? But, when you frame it in terms of experienced Red Seal workers seeking employment elsewhere... they're usually surprised by the fact that within the industry, seniority is a trap . What it means in terms of "if you don't like it quit" is that in essence, you have to leave the industry... not just look for a new job I'm just scratching the surface here... this could be a whole thread with lots of tentacles... it explains why some veteran (but unlucky) pilots found themselves better off driving dump trucks than airplanes during a serious pilot shortage. In a round about way, that's why you should care... because it effects you too. In the early stages of the shortage, there wasn't a lack of experienced pilots, there was a lack of experienced pilots willing to work for apprentice wages.

More wise words from an impeccable source for ya: "Too bad you're suffering from D&K effect by posting ONLY YOUR OPINION which means NOTHING."

Someone has wise words for ya: "Sorry (not) ^this OPINION means NOTHING because you have NO CREDENTIALS to make ^these judgements and NOT CITED ANY CREDENTIALED EXPERTS WHO DO."

All part of taking in the equivalent of four cities the size of Thunder Bay a year without the slightest preparation and thought given to infrastructure/support. We have more than enough landmass for that but at every turn we lack the supporting infrastructure to pull it off. It's one of those "what did you think was going to happen" questions and sthe solution isn't to continue making it worse. Given our intake so far this year (132,000 landed immigrants from Jan to Apr), we're on track for another 4 cities in 2025. You could take any single aspect of the resources needed to support the intake and run a full thread on it. If considered in isolation, our health care system will require a full decade to fix and that's only if we start today and go to a wartime effort. We haven't even started to start yet, this gets worse before it gets better. I always hoped that MAID wouldn't be expanded... I'm now absolutely confidant that it will be. Not only that, the people now opposed to it will come to support it out of desperation and the lack of options. I see no progress being made to suggest otherwise

Alcohol isn't food, neither are cigarettes... other than that, if you qualify for food stamps (via means test) I don't like the idea of government telling people what they can and can't eat. There's an interesting shift in perspective here, I perceive that conservative minded folks are in favour of the restrictions and liberals opposed, I'd submit that both parties have issues with consistency. Be careful what you wish for, telling people what they can and can't eat is a close cousin of telling them where they can and can't walk during a drought. Here's why it's best to be cautious with such things (IMO)... right now, I (and a lot of other old school liberals) think fat people should be entitled to health care regardless of their complicity in causing the disease that ails them... don't make us change our minds, you might just succeed and there are as many fat conservatives as there are fat liberals.

There are entire books on this... suffice it to say: It's way more than "just a religion", it's a blueprint for social order and an alternate model to secular democracy by virtue of its laws and governance. AND IT WORKS... but I don't think you'd like it.

Not today though... in celebration of National Lemon Meringue Pie Day Robo will be going pink.

And then tell him about "the law of mirroring." It's a form of projection... the afflicted individual reflects their own failings on others and it explains why some people attract the same problems, conflicts and interactions over and over again. The law of mirroring explains that we aren’t only attracting certain circumstances into our lives, we are actually getting glimpses of who we are through how we perceive others As a wise man on this very forum once said: Look at the post ABOVE YOURS to find the explanation that you WON'T UNDERSTAND, cause you're dumber than dirt. Guess who wrote that Robo?

You may not want to hear this or even believe it, but, Israel's efforts to mitigate civilian casualties in a high density area of operations will stand as model for other countries in future operations of this kind. They've been fighting an entrenched enemy force in a densely populated area (about twice the size of Washington DC) who have deliberately, extensively, and illegally used human shields in layered defence. In comparison, genocide is dead easy and easy dead... it's as indiscriminate as it is efficient. There's a reason this war has lingered for as long as it has and it's the very opposite of a manufactured genocide equation that can't be balanced with inflamed political rhetoric and downvotes from Fly-baby. As to the discussions of historical events long since rendered moot: Just my opinion, but during my first two tours there I perceived the situation as an ethnic struggle over a small piece of land, there were political and territorial objectives which (I thought) could be negotiated over time and I say that because political objectives, by nature, usually can be if the will to do so is there. There were religious differences of course but that wasn't the issue that struck me as a key obstacle to peace. That changed with Hamas and it created a brand new problem... political objectives were replaced with radical religious ones that utterly defy negotiation and render all of the previous missteps of history the domain of unproductive (but interesting) argument. Instead of trying to breathe new life into the skeletons of the past a more direct approach to the issue at hand is resolving a simple equation with no simple solution. Hamas seeks the destruction of the state of Israel and eradication of jews in order to build an Islamic state on the rubble. But, Israel isn't going anywhere and no amount of downvotes from Fly-baby or name calling from eyehole is going to change that dynamic. Due to the influence of Hamas, I don't see any solution with an implementation date prior to the passing of the current generation. In the interim, Palestinians need to acquire something they very much don't want to lose and see the potential for more in their own future. They need to see Hamas as an obstacle to achieving it and not a vehicle for providing it. Trump is not as far off target as some here might think, he just needs to dial out the reticle, tone down the rhetoric and act more presidential. I don't happen to think he's capable of doing that BTW and that's why the only thing I like about him is his wife.

Hey Fly-baby... 5 square on the downvotes. Do ya need to lick another limerick or have you and Herb already made up?

Unfortunately, the historical perspectives here are irrelevant. Until such time as Herb finishes work on that time machine the problem is as simple as the solution is difficult. ---------------------- - Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews; and - Israel isn't going anywhere. That's what ya got to work with.

Here's an update (previous posting) on that assault in Montreal. Ya, it's Rebel News, couldn't find the in-depth backstory I was looking for anywhere else. I love the fact that police took full credit for their hard work in effecting this arrest... it was actually members of the Jewish community who worked the streets and located him based on still pictures from the assault video. https://www.rebelnews.com/its_a_hate_crime_jewish_father_targeted_in_montreal_attack_brother_in_law_speaks_out Happy "international cat day" Herb....

A perfect match, you have artificial intelligence in common, must of been love at first byte... I bet ya couldn't resistor.

And among correct thinking progressives who've never heard of the Salah al-Din Road much less driven it, only they have a solution to the issues at hand... and of course, When numbers matter more than rational Estimates of The Situation (EOTS), these guys can help... just call 1-800- HERBNOW for more details: https://crowdsondemand.com

I think it's when, in support of your own political objectives and knowing it to be false, you accuse an entire family of gleefully attending a BBQ to watch HE shells explode in Gaza. How'd I do?

Not sure of the percentage but I'd say the majority of older folks I talked to certainly fell into that category. Nice people and some pretty interesting stories over sweet tea. One old fellow had tears in his eyes and the keys to his grandfathers farmhouse around his neck... I still think about him on occasion. That was long before Hamas came to town BTW, things have changed a bit since then; it might be more accurate to say they've become way more extreme. The majority of people I met could (IMO of course) be negotiated with, they only needed to see incremental improvement in their lives (and the promise of more) to stay motivated. The new breed, not so much. As it stands now (and what the Herbs of the world fail to acknowledge) is a new and stark reality... the days I refer to are gonzo now. ... that is until Hamas has been eradicated plus one generation if everything goes right. The historical perspective and human topography here is as fascinating as it is irrelevant, at least in the absence of a time machine. Get to work on that Herb...

Is that because you're anxious for another one? I've attended a few of your parties but they were mostly held in small hot countries.... maybe you'll have better luck with a big cold one eh? Don't forget to pack the Cheezies.