With the awareness that a common law DFR exists in the period following certification and prior to the collective agreement coming to life, it becomes apparent that the duty of care is owed to the pilots by ALPA is in part due to a sufficient proximity (I think) between the pilots and their union. This proximity and the duty of care owed, means that it would not be out of the question for a union member to place reliance on the communications issued by his representatives. Certainly no one would expect volunteer pilots to be lawyers or even to be very familiar with all of the law applicable to a person in her position. That said, if we apply a
reasonable person standard to the actions of union officials, that might point us in the direction of understanding the responsibility inherent upon union officials.
The following attachments are from a 1983 Ontario Labour Relations Board decision,
Smith v. Amalgamated Clothing & Textile Workers Union regarding advice offered to two employees by a union representative that while likely offered innocently, later caused the employees harm.
While you guys read the case, I'll gather up the communications that I have from ALPA representatives, both prior to certification and after, to see what representations were made by representatives of ALPA regarding the WPDL, the relationship of seniority to the WPDL, and the ordering and components of the WestJet Pilot Seniority List (WPSL) referenced by Kaplan.
I am also interested in the question of whether the WJ MEC may have misrepresented the composition of the WPSL to the WJ LEC's, and whether that issue may have been primary reason for the recall of the Chairman. Fortunately for the Vice-Chairman, he had already left the MEC to prepare for his induction as Canada Board President, so we will never know if he would have been recalled as well.
The circled element of the first attachment immediately below describes the second of the two allegations raised by the employees.
- ALPA_DFR_Almagamated, 1983_p5_JPEG_LI (2).jpg (1.4 MiB) Viewed 4155 times
- ALPA_DFR_Almagamated, 1983_p8_JPEG_LI.jpg (1.94 MiB) Viewed 4155 times
- ALPA_DFR_Almagamated, 1983_p9_JPEG_LI (2).jpg (1.9 MiB) Viewed 4155 times