Why WestJet?

[safetyfirst123]

The 1000hrs on WJ aircraft requirement has been in place for a number of years. Ask any encore pilot who stayed at encore for a lengthy period of time and then came to WJ and tried to upgrade before they met the same requirement.

That being said, I'm not sure why it is in place for SWG FOs who are "eligible" for upgrade.

Then how come the wording was changed in the PTM? And why was this change not shown in the revision status of the manual? And the timing of it all? Something stinks!!!

[phenix]

The 1000hrs on WJ aircraft requirement has been in place for a number of years. Ask any encore pilot who stayed at encore for a lengthy period of time and then came to WJ and tried to upgrade before they met the same requirement.

That being said, I'm not sure why it is in place for SWG FOs who are "eligible" for upgrade.

Then how come the wording was changed in the PTM? And why was this change not shown in the revision status of the manual? And the timing of it all? Something stinks!!!

Have someone actually contacted their MLO with these questions, and a screenshot before/after? And what has been the answer?

[nohojob]

The whole thing is grieved so the MLOs are aware.

[JBI]

The company has played this perfectly, regrettably the Union has taken a short sighted view for half a dozen upgrades. No unity amongst the group doesn't bode well for CA3.

I’ll bite. Even though I’m not a supporter of many current union officers (using their positions to push personal agendas over the wishes of their members), but how could the MEC have managed this differently? The company gets to choose how many pilots, how many captains, and how many first officers they require. Mergers are always going to leave some feeling mistreated.

And the company. The people running it can’t figure out how to run a Canadian airline when it gets cold. I’m not convinced a few captain positions being swapped around was part of their master plan to destroy the pilot group.

The least they could do is to make a statement …

I guess there’s much more important union business like the blue jays game and the golf tournament…

My understanding is that this issue is now being grieved by the pilots affected. I think, but am not 100% sure, that this is being grieved as individual grievances and not a policy grievance.

It is extremely rare that public statements are made about individual grievances. Grievance Committee Members do often give updates in person at LEC meetings. Our late former Grievance Chair gave some excellent updates at past LEC meetings. The DART system is very helpful so for those affected, sending a DART to the Grievance Committee is the best way to obtain information.

Baseless accusations on a public internet site with incomplete information can be fun, but not all that productive. The questions that have been asked about this issue are all valid, but are all directed at the company. The PTM is a Company Document that the Company has full authority over. There are many things that the union can do at an airline, but not a lot of it is instant. The ALPA/WestJet relationship is still relatively new and while the relationship is improving, to say that there have been growing pains would be an understatement.

You can choose to like the union and its volunteers or not, I've never been in the business of trying to sell ALPA to the group. But, for better or for worse, it is the best tool we have to continue to create unity and make our combined group stronger for the next round of negotiations. And, if you don't like your representation, there are processes to have them recalled. The structure of ALPA representation is also a bit different than at Unifor. Not saying it's better or worse - just different. The majority of the power lies with the voting LEC reps, not the MEC Chair and Vice-Chair. I agree with SafetyFirst123's post that we should be trying to unite the pilot groups and yes, it sucks that there will be issues that, for now, only relate to either pilots who were at SWG pre-merger or WJ pre-merger, but simply because a topic affects one group and not the other is not a reason to accuse your representation of back-room dealings on something that they have no power over anyways.

[daedalusx]

The MEC made a statement and multiple updates when WJ execs said they were not going to recognize total length of service for Sunwing capts but somehow when it’s about Sunwing FOs who have been denied capt seats then mum is the word ?

How is this any different? It literally affects all of the Sunwing first officers that could potentially upgrade.

Both should be treated as policy grievances. Period.