Gilles Hudicourt wrote:EA306, you just invoked an intersting hypothetical situation.ea306 wrote: Something better? Like what? A nice union busting wage diluting position such as a position at Rouge ......or Sky Regional where a captain makes less than an excavator operator makes moving dirt or killing trees? Whatever. Go ahead and wish us out of work. Personally I am very happy here. I will not apologize for the best paying year round job many of us have had and that we are enjoying here at Sunwing. I appreciate my job very much thank you...and sorry TG.... There is not going to be a better job waiting for anyone if Sunwing was to close its doors.
Is the B737 operation at Air Transat going to be a step forward if I resign and join them or if my job is lost at Sunwing? Here is another question, if I was to become unemployed at Sunwing, does this give me a god given right to be hired at Air Transat or anywhere else for that matter simply because I am Canadian and hold a Canadian ATPL with a B737NG and 9 other type ratings? Uh... I don't think I suffer such delusions of grandure and self entitlement that I should simply be hired on that basis alone. Maybe Rouge or Sky Regional or Air Transat or Encore would not see me in the same light and would not wish to offer me a position.
If you lost your job, and a few weeks later Air Transat imported B737 qualified foreign pilots after telling HRSDC that they needed such pilots because there were no qualified 737 pilots in Canada, you would scream bloody murder, and you would be entirely justified in doing so.
Yet this is exactly what Sunwing did in the fall of 2012. You remember I collected Resumes of qualified applicants? Five or six of the resumes that I collected were of B-737NG qualified pilots, one of which was no longer current, the others were. I also had another with a 737-200 rating. I sent these Resumes along with 70 others, most of which had jet time, to the ALPA Canada board where they were printed and delivered in person to HRSDC.
That did not prevent HRSDC from issuing 119 LMOs for type rated foreign pilots. The six Canadian 737NG rated guys were not hired at the time. On what excuse ? The same bogus excuse AT can invent to avoid hiring you: attitude problems, don't fit AT profile, questionable references.....whatever.
If such a hypothetical situation were to happen, I would be by your side screaming bloody murder also. For it would be wrong to leave a pilot like yourself on the pavement while AT hired foreigners
Seeing as he is on the subject of hypothetical questions...
Imagine that the economy is somewhat stagnant to poor, and overall the airline industry is not doing well, except perhaps that new charter company out west that has been expanding quite quickly. It is owned by some guy from the Far East who is a bit of a character. and flies regular flights to the Far East and India. Somehow he has played his cards well with alliances and good service and being in the right place at the right time to get good aircraft at a great price.
Anyways, competition is tough and most other carriers are losing money and finally after years of hanging on, Air Transat shuts down and all those pilots are out on the street. Poor Gilles has no job but a family to feed. Well I better apply to those guys out west he says. Besides, they will be coming east very soon with big plans backed by good money and what appears to be a good business model.
But unfortunately there is no reply for an interview, despite repeated attempts to get one. In fact, while a few in a similar situation have been hired, it is very few. "Why is that?" he asks one of the very few that he knows that have been lucky enough to get hired.
Well, it turns out that this Chinese businessman and his Indian wife are doing their best to hire pilots who at least speak Chinese or Indian as a second language. They are more comfortable with that and of course all the F/A's are from a similar background. With Canada's immigration policies over the last 30 years, there are quite a few pilots who are second generation from these lands and speak the language, mind you many those new F\O's are King Air drivers or similar. But while the owner insists that there must be decent experience in the cockpit and therefore some highly experienced pilots are hired, it is only the minimum necessary. Otherwise, speaking Chinese or Indian for an F/O with 1800 hours and some turbine is more important than some ex-Transat A-330 driver. It is a heck of an opportunity for those guys. In fact, most of the interviews are in Hindi, Mandarin or Cantonese.
Gilles is angry and bitter at not even being considered despite his extensive experience due to some artificial language requirement and he slams his fist on the table when he finds out about this. He complains about it on a forum but is labelled as intolerant by a pilot at this new company with such fantastic opportunities for a restricted population. But....at least Gilles now finally knows how 60% of Canadian pilots looking for a commercial airline job feel about Air Transat.
http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... 75#p823658Gilles Hudicourt wrote: .....your message of intolerance.
