To Air Canada Shareholders

TO AIR CANADA SHAREHOLDERS

 

 

June 4, 2012

 

You will be aware that the Air Canada Pilots Association's attempts to negotiate a new collective agreement have failed, resulting in the dispute being sent to an arbitration process imposed by the federalgovernment.

At today's Annual Meeting of Shareholders, this development may be portrayed as some sort of closure. Asfellow shareholders in our airline, we believe you have the right to know that it is nothing of the sort.Instead, this failure confirms that our internal culture is and will remain under severe duress. A positive,mutually-beneficial relationship between the Executive Committee and the 3,000 professional pilots at AirCanada seems less and less likely. As a shareholder, you should be concerned about the implications for thefuture of our airline.

Historically, pilots have been the most dedicated group of employees at Air Canada. Time after time,pilots have demonstrated their willingness to accommodate the legitimate needs of our airline. Over the pastdecade, Air Canada pilots have made many sacrifices that have provided hundreds of millions of dollars worthof concessions in order to keep our airline flying.

Over 75 years, Air Canada pilots have provided our airline with an unmatched safety record, responsiblemanagement of our valuable assets, risk reduction and a boost to passenger confidence, thus enhancing bothprofitability and shareholder value. In return, all that we asked was the opportunity to negotiate anagreement that recognizes the value that we create by flying millions of passengers safely and reliably totheir destinations every year.

For more than a year, every attempt to reach agreement at the bargaining table has been stymied. Thelock-out of our pilots in March, after we had publicly pledged not to take strike action, was acynical ploy apparently taken for the sole purpose of providing the federal government an entrée to legislateaway our rights. In its testimony to the Senate, Air Canada's Executive Committee itself acknowledged thatthis would have led to the loss of some $35 million per day.

Even more troubling is the hypocrisy evidenced in double-digit compensation increases  for the topexecutives while extolling austerity to employees, which is irreparably damaging both to the credibility ofcorporate leadership and to Air Canada's corporate culture.

Any confidence that may have remained and any hope of positive cultural change at Air Canada have beendestroyed. The dream of a true partnership, envisioned when employees gained the right to a Boardrepresentative through our 2009 negotiations, has died.

The Air Canada Pilots Association will vote its shares against all questions in the proxy circular forvarious reasons attributable to each. This does not bode well for the future of Air Canada. Successfulairlines around the world have made partnerships with their pilots a fundamental ingredient of the formulafor success. Those that haven't simply aren't successful.

We believe it is time that other shareholders in our airline start asking pointed questions about thedecisions and actions taken by the current corporate leadership in our inexorable fall from an IPO price of$20 to a penny stock today. We believe it's time for sweeping changes - change which must begin at thetop.

 

Sincerely,

 

The 3,000 Professional Pilots represented by the Air Canada Pilots Association

 

Contact: Paul Howard, Director of Communications 905-678-9008 ext. 222 phoward@acpa.ca

 

Submitted by ACPA on June 4, 2012  1:22pm