Bearskin/Perimeter Merger

[goingnowherefast]

Which union is going to represent the pilots once this is all said and done? Unifor filed with the CIRB that it should represent and ALPA started a card drive.

There's more pilots at Perimeter who might stay for loyalty sake.

ALPA was quite active in the new flight and duty times. Whether you agree with ALPAs position or not, it's still more than Unifor did.

Jazz set up the "pathway" program with Bearskin and Wasaya...both ALPA, better career progression.

ALPA has good negotiating, engineering, accounting, legal and aeromedical support staff.

What is on your pro and con list? What do you think the end result will be?

[digits_]

Whichever union that actually talks to the other pilot group will probably win

ALPA certainly has their merits, but depending on what you actually want out of working at Perimayaskin, there are some things that might convince people to vote Unifor. While the current collective agreements will probably not survive the merger, it does give an indication as to what each pilot group finds important.

- Payscale at perimeter starts a bit lower, but goes up a bit more. Bearskin starts a bit higher, but then has a flat 2 or 4% increase and in the end tops out higher. For year 3-10, roughly, pilots would be better of with the Unifor contract. Then again, Perimeter probably assumes you'll be on the dash 8 after 10 years anyways, so then Perimeter wins again. Per diems for multi day pairings are much better at Bearskin, so point for Bearskin if you are based in CYQT.
- Bond at Perimeter is much better than the money up front thing at Bearskin.
- Unifor allows some pilots to work part time, ALPA does not want to allow that at all.
- Perimeter Unifor has approved or negotiated quite some pay raises for their medevac operations and non-CYWG based Dash 8 captains. At Bearskin, there have been no pilot shortage induced wage increases.

Depends on what you want and whose negotiating skills you trust more.

[fish4life]

Bearskin has been in a position of shrinking / losing money the last while so I’d say it’s really tough to compare what each union has been able to do.

ALPA represents Calm Air which has one of the best regional contracts in Canada which is an EIF company as well as Wasaya which just went to the table again with the company to increase pay mid contract to help with retention anywhere from about $5000 for FO’s to over $16000 for Dash Captains.

The provision in most ALPA contracts that any new hires coming from a previous ALPA carrier get moved to the top of the new hire class for seniority is another advantage

Jumpseat agreement - ALPA kicks unifor for that since all the ALPA carriers jumpseat coordinators get together and they can get a lot more deals signed

[digits_]

Bearskin has been in a position of shrinking / losing money the last while so I’d say it’s really tough to compare what each union has been able to do.

Do you have a source for that? I wasn't aware Bearskin was doing bad financially. Shrinking, maybe, yes, but that doesn't mean they would be losing money.

The provision in most ALPA contracts that any new hires coming from a previous ALPA carrier get moved to the top of the new hire class for seniority is another advantage

True, but does that really matter? I know some people who get all excited, but it is just within a certain class, so the effects are pretty minimal...

Jumpseat agreement - ALPA kicks unifor for that since all the ALPA carriers jumpseat coordinators get together and they can get a lot more deals signed

Absolutely true. ALPA is better for that, but I think perimeter has some pretty useable jumpseat agreements as well, but I do not know the full list. Definitely points for ALPA for this one.