Foreign Workers in Canada

[ahramin]

This is a company where pilots have to pay their own type ratings to get hired, where low time junior pilots with just a commercial licence are not only hired in the right seat, as is typical in Europe, but whose starting salary is under 1000 Euros per month and where Captains sometimes earn less than a Canadian First Officer.

Air Transat is now off my list for holiday vacations joining Sunwing... and I will let all family and friends know about this and convince them to stick with Canadian airlines with only Canadian pilots.

what a disgrace this is becoming!

Yep. It seems Red and Westjet are now the only way to go.

[BBQ Chips]

Obviously Gilles isn't responsible for Transat taking on the four wet lease's, the market is. He has made progress for all Canadian pilots and hopefully the ball continues to roll. IMHO the only answer is 100% reciprocity, no exceptions. Whether you are with Sunwing, Transat or whomever, Gilles has done us a service thus far. Hopefully our government cracks down and corrects an obviously out of whack situation.

[Johnny#5]

As you can see, in my name, I read not write.

Yeah you do.

[aerosexual]

Why would the union have an issue with seasonal Canadian pilots? Or was this a ploy that the company used to justify their use of foreign pilots? Was there perhaps an issue with direct entry captains?

Nothing is known at this point. I was in no way involved in those negociations, do not know what the company wanted, nor do I know what the Union may have objected to, if anything. We will soon know however......

Fair enough. And I agree with the post above, 100% reciprocity is the only way to justify the use of foreign pilots. Having said that, there is a lot of movement these days, let's just hope nothing happens to cause instability for everybody's sake.

[AuxBatOn]

[quote="aerosexual]
Fair enough. And I agree with the post above, 100% reciprocity is the only way to justify the use of foreign pilots. Having said that, there is a lot of movement these days, let's just hope nothing happens to cause instability for everybody's sake.[/quote]

Slightly hypocrite, isn't it?

One of the HUGE factors in the fight against Sunwing's TFW program was how "unsafe" those pilots were. I guess the fact that they (indirectly) work for AT makes them a lot safer...

[aerosexual]

[quote="aerosexual]
Fair enough. And I agree with the post above, 100% reciprocity is the only way to justify the use of foreign pilots. Having said that, there is a lot of movement these days, let's just hope nothing happens to cause instability for everybody's sake.

Slightly hypocrite, isn't it?

One of the HUGE factors in the fight against Sunwing's TFW program was how "unsafe" those pilots were. I guess the fact that they (indirectly) work for AT makes them a lot safer...[/quote][/quote]

I don't think I'm being hypocritical at all. I don't work for Air Transat, and I firmly believe in a reciprocal agreement where similar numbers of pilots go back and forth in different seasons. All sorts of arguments have been made in the fight against TFW's, many of them nonsense.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

This is a company where pilots have to pay their own type ratings to get hired, where low time junior pilots with just a commercial licence are not only hired in the right seat, as is typical in Europe, but whose starting salary is under 1000 Euros per month and where Captains sometimes earn less than a Canadian First Officer.

Air Transat is now off my list for holiday vacations joining Sunwing... and I will let all family and friends know about this and convince them to stick with Canadian airlines with only Canadian pilots.

what a disgrace this is becoming!

Relax, this is not a done deal yet.

[Spaceshuttle]

Hahahaha

[Gilles Hudicourt]

One of the HUGE factors in the fight against Sunwing's TFW program was how "unsafe" those pilots were.

Care to provide a few examples to back your statement up ?

[watermeth]

Care to provide a few examples to back your statement up ?

just read your own posts...

[OPEC6-Heavy]

LOL
Air Transat bringing in TFW pilots, from Travel Service to top it off..... Gilles you must be having a stroke It's a done deal my friend.

[GRK2]

Holy Jeez Gilles...Hoisted on your own petard... what does ALPA have to say about this turn of events? I really hope this development turns out to be a bad rumour...all that hard work by you and others and your own employer bends you over to say thanks! I can sympathise a little, I've had work stolen by a manager and claimed as his...Karma ended it well, but I sure hope this ain't so...good luck!

[Jean-Luc Monette]

FTR... AT is not, I repeat, is not "bringing in" TFWs to fly C-reg airplanes...

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Yes, unlike what a couple people are trying to claim here, my issue was with fake Reciprocity, when that was going on, and TFW pilots being imported into Canada while claiming as an excuse to import these Foreign pilots, that there was a shortage of qualified Canadian pilots in Canada.
Most of the Reciprocal Pilots and the TFW pilots, were flying Canadian Registered Aircraft under the Sunwing OC with a Foreign Licence using a TC issued FLVC, a practice that I firmly believe is contrary to the letter and the spirit of the CARs.

Wet-Lease is a whole different ball game, which has never been the subject of my posts, and those that claim otherwise, provide examples to back your claims, or retract.
Wet Lease pilots do not need an LMIA to come to Canada, they do not need a Work Permit to come to Canada, they do not need an FLVC to come to Canada. Foreign Wet-Leases, are, thanks to recent efforts by Unions and the Industry, restricted to 20% of the Fleet at the time of application. Air Transat has 25 aircraft on its OC, and is thus allowed to apply for 5 Foreign Wet-Leases.

That being said, I am not happy about my employer using Foreign Wet-Leases instead of Canadian pilots. This is written under my real name, not while hiding behind an anonymous alias.

How many Sunwing pilots out there have the guts to write the same, even with an alias ?

[AuxBatOn]

Gilles,

Regardless of the contractual details, the same pilots fly the aircraft. Are they safer because they are operating a wet lease, because you did claim pilots operating with a FLVC were much less safe than Canadian pilots.

[Gilles Hudicourt]

Gilles,

Regardless of the contractual details, the same pilots fly the aircraft. Are they safer because they are operating a wet lease, because you did claim pilots operating with a FLVC were much less safe than Canadian pilots.

You can repeat it 1000 times, it does not make it true.

Quote me.

[Scuba_Steve]

Few things, the Union at TS does favour Canadian Seasonal Pilots and the deal is still being worked out. If they manage to work something out and can hire more Canadian Seasonal pilots they will that will knock the Foreign crewed aircraft down a few tails. (also as an aside there are expansion plans for next year those "seasonal" guys could have a good chance of being full time but that is just an educated guess at this point). Upgrades are starting to happen as well.

There will be a few more courses for full time new hires soon.

The company did sign a 4 year deal for the airplanes, but the WET lease (ie with crew) is for this season with the intention of having all of the aircraft operated by Air Transat crews next year.

Is it a slippery slope? Yes
Is anyone at TS happy about this? Nope

Anyways TS is growing and aggressively going after the market. I encourage anyone who is interested in applying to TS for the seasonal or FT positions. We'd love to have you guys/gals on the property!

Cheers

[Spaceshuttle]

So when CJ was doing the flying Transat Airlines had to take over to save money supposedly, and you can judge that success by their financials. Now, to Actually save money they have gone to foreign pilots flying foreign planes under their OC as a wet lease, and apparently this is acceptable OR not as bad as foriegn crew flying Transat aircraft.

Amazing idea.... Guess using More wet leases would be the way to go based on that logic...

Now they can start lobbying for more wet leases as this seems like a winning money saving idea!!

[rudder]

So, if AT goes the'seasonal pilot' route, will they be hiring Seasonal Captains?

Shop Canadian

[Dick]

Gilles,

Regardless of the contractual details, the same pilots fly the aircraft. Are they safer because they are operating a wet lease, because you did claim pilots operating with a FLVC were much less safe than Canadian pilots.

You can repeat it 1000 times, it does not make it true.

Quote me.

He tried it here: http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopi ... =5&t=95350
It just didn't get very far.