By Skies Magazine | April 8, 2024 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 44 seconds.
WestJet Encore pilots have reached an agreement in principle with WestJet management, bringing them a step closer to resolving a long-simmering labour dispute.
Discussions continue as the parties work to finalize contract language for a full tentative agreement, said the union that represents them, the Air Line Pilots Association Int’l (ALPA).
“After several consecutive days of late-stage negotiating, progress was made on a number of key issues including compensation and scheduling,” said Capt Carin Kenny, chair of the WestJet Encore ALPA Master Executive Council (MEC).
“We are pleased to announce an agreement in principle that goes a long way toward bringing the WestJet Encore pilots in line with our regional flying counterparts across Canada.”
WestJet Encore is the company’s regional carrier, operating a fleet of de Havilland Q400 turboprop airliners to smaller cities in the WestJet network. The agreement in principle follows more than seven months of negotiations, ALPA said.
If finalized, the agreement would avoid a strike ahead of the busy summer travel season. WestJet Encore pilots had voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike if the parties could not agree to a new deal.
Wages were a major sticking point in the negotiations, with ALPA arguing better compensation in other countries was drawing pilots away and worsening Canada’s aviation talent shortage.
“Throughout the negotiating process, management’s refusal to grasp the current labour market conditions in Canada’s aviation sector resulted in a mass exodus of pilots in search of better work opportunities,” said Kenny.
“It is significant that management now recognizes a contract without the required economic and scheduling improvements would result in a continuation of the current pilot attraction and retention crisis at the airline.”
Terms of the agreement-in-principle have not been released. WestJet Encore pilots are among the 77,000 pilots ALPA represents at airlines in Canada and the United States.
