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CAW may have saved _â€"Canadian from itself Sveuesbcticagen Consider the fact that, shortly after the first major pay cut taken by employees, Canadian rewarded its executives with generous bonusâ€" es. More recently, the company purchased the Saddledome in Calgary so that it could be renamed the Canadian Airlines Saddledome. But, as Hargrove correctly pointed out, if wage cuts were the answer to Canadian‘s probâ€" lems, it would hardly be in trouble today. Canadian employees had already taken three pay cuts in the past five years (giving them salanes far below those paid by Air Canada), so it was neither fair nor logical to be approaching them for a fourth time. If the last three pay cuts were not successful in making Canadian profitable again, then it clearly had deeper problems than the amount of its payâ€" roll. Going back to the employees again mereâ€" ly allowed the company to avoid dealing with those intrinsic difficulties and made the demand for pay cut number five all but inevitable. As the Canadian Airlines talks unfolded over the past month, governments, the media and Au company management did an incredibly effective job of paintâ€" VI ing the Canadian Auto Workers and its leader, Buzz Hargrove, as ooo an archâ€"villain. 4 With a few exceptions, public commentary on the talks was virtually unanimous in conâ€" demning the union for its tough stance. Now that agreement has been reached, it‘s worth examinâ€" ing whether that vilification was e justified. The short answer is "No", but this would be a pretty short column if 1 left it at that,. Much of the criticism of the CAW was based on its initial refusal to even consider asking his members to take a wage cut (it was joined in this position by the Canadian Union of Public Employees). The company was clearly in trouble and argued that it needed all of its employees to take a 10 per cent wage cut in order for it to survive. weoHyorWydunth Take $10 off your First and Third PPRJOTp.2p ww d wey . ) hedc 1e 9 NYA Scott Piatkowski‘s columns are also available on the World Wide Web at hitp://wwwionline net/~activist ~ * _ The other main line of attack in the propaganda war against the CAW was to target its alleged refusal to allow its members to vote on whether to take a wage cut Transport Minister David Anderson was typiâ€" cal of this line of thinking when he accused "one man (of) putting the jobs of 16,400 at risk by his (Hargrove‘s) actions." This arguâ€" ment ignores the wellâ€"established processes of union democracy in Canada: that an elected bargaining committee comes to an agreement and then the members vote on it. The federal government‘s unprecedented decision to order a vote in the absence of such an agreement is one of the worst abuses of power in recent memory. Instead of joining in the attack on the CAW, the federal government should have spent its energy on addressing its role in creating the crisis through policies such as deregulation, privatization and free trade. It belatedly agreed to do so only last weekend, as part of Canadian‘s agreement with the CAW, By forcâ€" ing the government to reconsider its airline policies, and by drawing attention to the deepâ€" ¢r issues behind Canadian‘s troubles, the Canadian Auto Workers â€" far from being a vilâ€" lain â€" just may have saved Canadian Airlines from itsell. 2 D Premier‘s Conference, paying to outfit the Premiers and their entourage _ with _ Canadian Airlines vests. And this compaâ€" ny believes that the salaries paid to its workers are its main probâ€" to paint a huge corporate logo on the roof and to install special lights to illuminate it at night â€" until the arena‘s neighbors comâ€" plained and they agreed to shut them off. If that wasn‘t enough, the company was one of three "sponsors" of this year‘s They paid thousands of dollars eterneicad se abcarrinannce > on ID PHOTOS 1 HOUR FILM WATJERLOO â€" _aB wWaTERioo * OVER 300 FRIENDLY STORES 4 SERVICES COWVEMIEN! PafuQnt Shop by PHONE or in person 888â€"6264 We deliver anywhere "We‘re More Than just Great Baskets" for the _ *CME hardâ€"toâ€"buy for, guaranteed to make them smile % Baskets loaded with temptuous gourmet delights or antiâ€"stress pamper favourites.