WestJet pilots to strike because $300K a year ain't enough

[TFTMB heavy]

Keep blaming the media instead of WestJet management and Alexis von Hoensbroech will keep laughing all the way to the bank.

The media, politics, culture wars and public perception are a distraction. They will not determine your WAWCON.

Stay focused. Apply pressure where it counts.

Time to start thinking like activists.

While I agree, it's not about blaming media, it's having the public on our side. No company wants bad PR, and having the public on our side will put pressure on mangement.

The company does not care about the public opinion, they want the pilots to feel pressured to take a subpar deal. People have no loyalty to airlines anymore, only to the price.

[ads-b]

The traveling public will think we’re overpaid right up to the point they have to take a bus..

Government is responsible for this mess. Offloaded airports. Offloaded controllers. Offloaded TC oversight. Now make a small fortune off lease rates. Then hammer us on taxes on the back side.

But as I said before. I don’t give a shit..out of my pay grade to fix that. Only thing we can fix is our working conditions across the country as a unified pilot group. Go westjet!! Go alpa!!

[RippleRock]

Some pilots are literally gone from home for 260 hours a month. Think about that for a moment. That's a hundred hours "gone" more per month than a 40 hour a week full timer.

Not sleeping in your own bed, not watching your own TV, not hanging out with your dog, not eating your own food, living out of a bag, constantly on the move. Relationships strained or non-existent. A way of life that nearly everyone else enjoys and takes for granted is experienced by relatively few pilots that can hold day turns.

This job isn't what you think.

FWIW, this job is also -literally OVER- if you lose your medical. There is no sympathy or avenue of hope for a pilot who contracts heart disease, CF, MS, Parkinsons, vision problems, psychological/cognitive issues or loses a limb through an accident. 98.5% of other occupations will find a place for you with a disability because its --your right-- under the law. Not in our profession....and --not one profession-- in that remaining 1.5% is as expensive or time consuming to attain.

If you do break yourself trying to eclipse the $300k mark, that the "Swiss Miss Alexis seems to imply that everyone of us earns, have fun paying 6-figure income taxes. How many Canadians does a pilot paying $100,000 a year in income tax help support?? The answer is DOZENS.

Think about that for a moment while you're thinking about the other stuff.

[cheeky cough]

Year 2 narrow body First Officer at Delta makes what a Year 12 Narrow Body Captain makes at Canada’s largest airline. The also have
superior work rules.
Keep it up. We are all counting on you.

[2Shoes]

Just to clarify, Pelmet didn't write that long post. It's the article linked at the top of the thread which appeared in the Toronto Sun today written by Brian Lilley. Your responses are excellent. Why not send them to Lilley to further his education on our situation.

[pelmet]

Just to clarify, Pelmet didn't write that long post. It's the article linked at the top of the thread which appeared in the Toronto Sun today written by Brian Lilley. Your responses are excellent. Why not send them to Lilley to further his education on our situation.

Correct,

I am hoping for the best for this outcome and wish you guys well. But I don't think the public will be any more favourable to pilots that to government workers as the cost will go through the system and be paid buy them in the end.

There has been talk about pay versus the US. The American pilots make a lot more. It appears that the American CEO's make a lot more too.

Seeing as WJ is private, I searched AvCanada and found this......

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=64852

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sd ... story.html

2 million at WJ in 2009 versus 17 million at Delta in 2008.

[JBI]

The important thing to keep in mind is that Brian Lilley is a columnist rather than reporter. He and Ezra Levant were the co-founders of Rebel News and I think it's fair to say that they have a hate-on for unions period. Some of Brian Lilley's columns during the teachers dispute in Ontario were borderline hate speech.

The information that he quotes in the article is not accurate and it's clear to anyone who has a basic understanding of WestJet's pay scales that he hasn't done more than a perfunctory google search to write a crappy article. What's funny, is that my perfunctory google search on him shows that with his speaking engagements he likely has an income over $300,000 a year.

With Onex CEO Gerry Schwartz (at least formerly) being a big time Liberal Party fund raiser, if Brian Lilley had done any research I'm sure he would have had a crises of conscious - who does he hate more: unions or Liberals??

[Torontomaplelaughs]

Just to clarify, Pelmet didn't write that long post. It's the article linked at the top of the thread which appeared in the Toronto Sun today written by Brian Lilley. Your responses are excellent. Why not send them to Lilley to further his education on our situation.

Correct,

I am hoping for the best for this outcome and wish you guys well. But I don't think the public will be any more favourable to pilots that to government workers as the cost will go through the system and be paid buy them in the end.

There has been talk about pay versus the US. The American pilots make a lot more. It appears that the American CEO's make a lot more too.

Seeing as WJ is private, I searched AvCanada and found this......

http://www.avcanada.ca/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=64852

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sd ... story.html

2 million at WJ in 2009 versus 17 million at Delta in 2008.

Delta's CEO Ed Bastion & AC's CEO have very similar compensation

Delta pilots & AC pilots do NOT have similar compensation

[GuppyDriver]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

[CaptDukeNukem]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

[GuppyDriver]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

Here ya go. Any details out yet about the WJ agreement?

Paycheck stub May 19th.png (356.07 KiB) Viewed 3523 times

[nutlord]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

Here ya go. Any details out yet about the WJ agreement?


Paycheck stub May 19th.png

Holy cow...

[CaptDukeNukem]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

Here ya go. Any details out yet about the WJ agreement?


Paycheck stub May 19th.png

Amazing! I love you already. Cheers mate.

[WhataYoke]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

Here ya go. Any details out yet about the WJ agreement?


Paycheck stub May 19th.png

You just made every Canadian pilot on here question their life choices.

[Bede]

Well done GuppyDriver.

I can't help to point out the federal tax of $3273 on earnings of $17k. In Canada, that tax would be $7-8k. That makes a huge difference. Don't ever let anyone tell you that we have free healthcare.

[jpilot77]

Well done GuppyDriver.

I can't help to point out the federal tax of $3273 on earnings of $17k. In Canada, that tax would be $7-8k. That makes a huge difference. Don't ever let anyone tell you that we have free healthcare.

100%

[GuppyDriver]

You just made every Canadian pilot on here question their life choices.

Sorry that wasn't my intention, just to give a point of reference to you guys about a narrowbody major airline compensation. There is zero reason you shouldn't being doing the same, if not better. Stay unified!

[altiplano]

You guys should be doing the same, if not better than us in the US. I'm a junior Alaska Airlines captain, and hustling this year I'm going to make $370,000 (usd)

Awesome that you joined this group three days ago. Send us a pic of your pay stub. Of course, blur out the personal info.

Here ya go. Any details out yet about the WJ agreement?


Paycheck stub May 19th.png

Right on GuppyDriver.

Give these slackjawed Canadians a shot of reality. We've been staring at our shoes and shitting in each others back seats too long in this country.

Boeing or Airbus Captain is a $350K+ job. Full stop.

We all need to get that in our heads, accept nothing less and then push it higher. Whatever comes of this WJ deal, it's a good first step, and while pay should have been higher, I see other important gains. This does place WJ Pilots as the best compensated in this country and now the work falls to the rest of us AC, Transat, etc. to build and push for more.

[nrgxlr8tr]

there is zero reason why canadian airlines cannot match foreign airlines. make it make sense why an ac pilot makes less than a delta pilot if they both fly toronto-atlanta on an a320 for example. the fares are more or less the same, so where is all the money going?

[dontcallmeshirley]

there is zero reason why canadian airlines cannot match foreign airlines. make it make sense why an ac pilot makes less than a delta pilot if they both fly toronto-atlanta on an a320 for example. the fares are more or less the same, so where is all the money going?

The money goes up. Those in charge look out for those around them that they know in return for those around them looking out for them.

Pilots are an operating expense, not a CEO's friend.