Unions attack payout plan

AIR CANADA Insist cash should cushion wage cuts CEO Milton hints at stepping down

Air Canada’s shareholders have approved a divisive payout to the company’s investors that may be worth as much as $300 million, a year after the carrier emerged from bankruptcy protection after pressuring unions to surrender $ 1.1 billion worth of annual wage and benefits concessions. The big- buck payout, given the go-ahead yesterday by shareholders at Air Canada’s annual meeting in Montreal, is being scorned by the carrier’s unions. They argue the dividend is shortsighted and puts the interests of powerful Wall Street hedge funds, investment banks and Air Canada’s management ahead of its rank- and- file employees.

“ We are getting hosed,” said Paul Lefebvre, an Ontario president for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represents baggage handlers and other ramp workers.

“ If avian flu hits the trail, or there’s a terror attack, or business starts laying people off or Bush decides to start another war, it would be good to have that cash on hand,” Lefebvre said. “ We should be keeping that capital for a rainy day.”

Instead, at the urging of Robert Milton, chief executive of par-

Once the customer is in the showroom, it’s up to the dealer to draw them to the company’s models and complete the sale, Accavitti said. Consumers who don’t buy a vehicle can enter the contest for $ 25,000 by going to a showroom where they can obtain a personal identification number at a desk or booth. Then they wait until the following Thursday for the secret word on the English CTV and French TVA newscasts. They enter it and the identification number plus some personal details in an online form on a DaimlerChrysler website.

At least 75 per cent of Canadians have computers at home. A majority of them have Internet access.

Accavitti noted that entries and the accompanying information will also give the company an opportunity to communicate with a whole new group of prospective customers through follow- up mailings.

In the television ads, the Emmyaward winning Shatner poses as a “ modest” millionaire in front of a mansion and some hot Chrysler cars.

“ You know I’m a simple man, just like you,” the 74- year- old Montreal native and former fictional spaceship commander says.

“ So when I heard that Chrysler was going to make someone in Canada a millionaire just by buying or leasing one of these great cars, I got excited.

“ Like I said, I’m a simple man and we all know money can’t buy you happiness,” he adds.

Shatner, who currently acts as an aging, cocky but befuddled lawyer in the popular television show Boston Legal, starred as Captain James T. Kirk in the cult- favourite Star Trek series, which aired from 1966 to 1969. The series also led to several Star Trek

spin-off television shows and movies and helped create the subsequent cultural phenomena.