As most of you probably know, the situation at Air Canada has been rather stressfull on employees as the airline goes through its restructuring process. However if things weren’t interesting enough already, some fuel has just been added to the fire. It’ll be interesting to see how far the pilots are willing to take this fight and at what cost to Air Canada’s future existence? This article makes for some good reading and is one of the best explanations that I’ve read in the press to date of how the current situation evolved. There’s also some interesting stats at the end of the article as well…..
Air Canada, the pilots and all that Jazz
Long-distance mainliners are on a collision course with busy short-hoppers over who will fly new jets, JOHN PARTRIDGE writes
By JOHN PARTRIDGE
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
POSTED AT 6:21 PM EDT Saturday, Jun. 14, 2003
Monty Allan wants to correct some popular misconceptions about the 1,400 pilots who fly for Air Canada’s regional airline, Air Canada Jazz.
They don’t fly ”little, antiquated puddle-jumper prop airplanes,” and they do have to meet the same federal licensing standards as the 3,100 pilots who fly for the carrier’s mainline service, said Mr. Allan, who is vice-chairman of the Jazz branch of the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). They also don’t help to sling baggage, take tickets or dispense in-flight meals the way their counterparts do at some smaller Canadian and U.S. carriers.
But whatever else their jobs may or may not involve, they are on a collision course with Air Canada’s mainline pilots over who will get to fly the next generation of smaller jets — which will seat 70 to 110 passengers each — that Air Canada wants to start bringing on in 2005.
As it seeks to restructure and emerge from bankruptcy protection, Air Canada wants to reallocate aircraft from the mainline service to Jazz, whose operating costs are substantially lower.
Among nine new labour agreements the airline reached with its unionized work force in a bid to slash more than $1.1-billion in costs was one allowing Jazz pilots to fly aircraft with up to 75 seats and giving them the chance to bid against mainline pilots on those with up to 110 seats. In return, the ALPA agreed to personnel and wage cuts.
In recent years, as a result of tough bargaining by the mainline pilots — who are represented by a separate union, the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) — Jazz has been confined to planes with a maximum of 55 seats, although its 94-plane fleet includes 10 80-passenger BAE-146 jets that were grandfathered under earlier labour agreements. The fleet also includes 74 37- and 50-seat versions of the Dash 8 turboprop, and 10 50-seat Bombardier Regional Jets.
The trouble with the new arrangement reached with the ALPA last month is that to keep the airline flying, Air Canada in essence promised those same new 70- to 110-seat aircraft to the ACPA pilots.
Both unions reluctantly agreed to the unusual deal when a court-appointed facilitator persuaded them to let an arbitrator actually figure out down the road which group of pilots will get which new aircraft.
The prospect of a battle has brought perennially bitter relations between the two unions to a new low. It also comes at a time when ratification of a new labour deal by the ACPA is threatened by the renewal of a turf war over seniority between mainline pilots who have always been with Air Canada and those who flew with Canadian Airlines before the two carriers merged operations three years ago.
The appeal for Air Canada of getting more planes into the Jazz fleet is simple. Jazz pilots are paid a whole lot less.
Under pay scales in force until the latest round of agreed cuts, the average annual salary for a Jazz pilot would be about $75,000 a year; the most senior pilot in the fleet would earn about $100,000, said Mr. Allan, a Jazz captain who has been with the carrier and its predecessors for 20 years. The comparable figures for mainline pilots would be about $140,000 and $250,000, respectively, according to Serge Beaulieu, an ACPA spokesman and Air Canada first officer.
The lower pay scale has been at the heart of a deep animosity between the two groups of pilots that dates back at least to 1991.
At the time, both groups belonged to the ALPA’s Canadian branch — then called the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association — but a dispute arose that year when the association decided to merge and integrate the seniority lists of Air Canada and five regional airlines. When an arbitrator’s ruling in 1995 appeared to guarantee that regional pilots would get to fly larger aircraft and earn more money, the mainline pilots broke away and launched their own union. In turn, some of the regional pilots from what was then Air Ontario launched a lawsuit against the mainline pilots that is still going on.
“Well, when somebody who works for the same company tries to take some work away from you, of course there will be some animosity,” Mr. Beaulieu said by way of explanation. “It’s like trying to jump the queue.”
Whether the mainline pilots deserve to be paid much more than their Jazz rivals depends on whom you talk to.
As far as Mr. Beaulieu is concerned, the difference is justified. In the aviation world, size does matter, and wages have traditionally been tied to how large an aircraft a pilot flies.
“You’re paid more because you fly a bigger airplane,” he said, adding that “the responsibilities of a jet pilot with the latest technology and 150 to 250 passengers in the back are greater than flying a [18-seat] Beech 1900 from Sault Ste. Marie to Toronto.”
In Canada, the United States or Europe, he said, regional airlines are like the American Hockey League. “That’s where you earn your wings and that’s where you build your hours and that’s where you make a name for yourself,” he said. “Should you do a good job . . . on the farm team, then you get picked up by the NHL team and you get to fly the bigger airplanes.”
However, Joseph D’Cruz, who heads the Aerospace Management Program at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, questions the large pay disparity between the pilot groups, saying the differences in their jobs “certainly don’t justify” it.
“The salary differences are essentially an outcome of seniority rather than the technical difficulties of the job,” he said.
In fact, Prof. D’Cruz contends that, in some ways, flying larger aircraft such as Boeing 767s, as the mainline pilots mostly do, is easier than jockeying Jazz’s smaller planes.
“Boeing designs its aircraft with a huge amount of redundancy in them and huge margins for pilot inconsistency,” he said. “So, in some ways, the Boeing aircraft is easier to fly than the little Regional Jets.”
What sets the Jazz pilots apart from their mainline counterparts is that they generally fly smaller aircraft carrying fewer passengers per load over much smaller distances — although there are some overlaps in both routes and aircraft types.
“They jump in a plane and they fly for 14 hours halfway around the world,” Mr. Allan said of the mainline pilots. “The average flight that is operated by Jazz is probably somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes.”
One consequence of the shorter flights is that Jazz pilots tend to do many more takeoffs and landings. Mr. Allan and his colleagues consider this an especially important differentiator, because takeoffs and landings are considered the most stressful part of any flight.
By way of an example, a mainline pilot flying a wide-body aircraft on a Toronto to Vancouver return flight is looking at only two takeoffs and two landings in a given day.
By contrast, one veteran Jazz Dash 8 captain said he is legally allowed to do up to 10 takeoffs and 10 landings a day. On a recent four-day “pairing” covering four western cities, he said, he did about 24 of them — and he argued that this makes his sort of flying a lot more tiring than all but the longest-haul flights conducted by his mainline counterparts.
“It’s a lot easier to fly between Vancouver and Toronto on one airplane for four hours than it is to do our work,” said the pilot, who asked not to be identified. “You know, you climb up to 35,000 or 40,000 feet and you sit back and relax and wait for an emergency. It’s a little different than where you’re always planning the next landing, which is probably going to be in 45 or 50 minutes. So our job is certainly a lot more work . . . in that respect.”
However, ACPA president Don Johnson, a veteran 747 captain, dismisses this distinction — at least as far as it relates to his members’ higher pay rates.
“If they wanted to pay pilots according to landings and takeoffs, the guys who are flying up north in the bush would be making far more than we are,” he said. “That’s not a recognized way of deciding how you should be paid in the airline industry.”
There appears to be little attempt to encourage a more collegial attitude in the pilots’ daily working lives. At most domestic airports, for instance, there are separate crew lounges and briefing rooms for Jazz and Air Canada mainline pilots.
The Jazz veteran said Air Canada management have favoured the use of separate facilities out of concern that the two pilot groups “might find themselves in an argumentative scenario.”
However, another long-time Jazz pilot said the separate facilities have less to do with rivalry between the groups than with the fact that the two carriers have separate operating certificates and use separate dispatchers, whose responsibilities include briefing the pilots.
Mr. Allan conceded that, historically, regional airlines such as Jazz have been regarded as the junior leagues, the training ground for the mainline carriers. But he argued that things are different now.
“The industry has changed dramatically,” he said, adding that these days, the average Jazz pilot is 35 to 40 years old. “We are not youngsters who are just trying to get a crack at the majors,” he said, adding that the most senior pilot on the Jazz roster has been with the airline and its predecessors for 35 years. “We’re people who have invested a lot of years in the business working where we are.” But Mr. Johnson insisted that flying a large aircraft for a large carrier remains a holy grail for most young pilots, not least because the bigger the aircraft, the bigger the pay cheque. “Generally, it’s an accepted principle that the top aviation job in Canada is at a major airline like Air Canada,” he said.
In the meantime, the ACPA’s president sees more trouble ahead in the competitive bidding war brewing over the new smaller jets Air Canada plans to buy. “The company wanted to set one group of its employees against the other and get them into a bidding war,” he said. “And, of course, the only people that win in that is the company, because you bid lower and lower and lower to fly the aircraft.”
Nevertheless, conflict aside, Mr. Johnson also acknowledged that, in the end, there isn’t much to choose from between flying a 747 and flying a Dash 8. “Once the thing is pushed back from the gate, except for the number of throttles you have in your hand, there’s not much difference,” he said.
On a collision course
Air Canada Jazz pilots are fighting with Air Canada’s mainline pilots over who will get to fly the next generation of smaller jets.
…………………………..JAZZ / AIR CANADA
Number of pilots: 1,400 / 3,100
Average salary: $75,000 (Can) / $140,000 (Can)
Average age*: 35-40 / late 40s
Aircraft flown: Dash-8, BAE-146, Bombardier Regional Jet / Airbus A319, A320, A321, A330, A340, Boeing 737 (Tango/Zip), 767, Bombardier Regional Jet
Average flight duration*: 60-90 mins / 5-6 hours
Union: Air Line Pilots Association / Air Canada Pilots Association
-*union estimates
SOURCES: http://WWW.AIRCANADA.COM; http://WWW.FLYJAZZ.CA
By: Whiskey Delta - 17th June 2003 at 15:22
Re: Will it come to blows?
Originally posted by binx
“You’re paid more because you fly a bigger airplane,” he said, adding that “the responsibilities of a jet pilot with the latest technology and 150 to 250 passengers in the back are greater than flying a [18-seat] Beech 1900 from Sault Ste. Marie to Toronto.”
Boy he contradicts himself here. First he says he should be paid more because he flies a bigger plane then he says it’s because he has more responsibility. The responsibility of flying at 18,000′ is no different if you have 100 people sitting behind you or 10. What about all those cargo pilots flying a 747 filled with boxes and letters? By his logic they should get paid dirt as their level of responsibility isn’t as great as his flying 150 people around. The responsibility of operating an aircraft safely that has no autopilot, FMS, ACARS and rarely climbs above the weather is a lot harder than watching the computer fly and navigate your way across the map.
In Canada, the United States or Europe, he said, regional airlines are like the American Hockey League. “That’s where you earn your wings and that’s where you build your hours and that’s where you make a name for yourself,” he said. “Should you do a good job . . . on the farm team, then you get picked up by the NHL team and you get to fly the bigger airplanes.”
And we should thank GOD himself that we should be so lucky as to fly next to you. Drop the “holier than thou” attitude there buddy. The days of treating the “regional” airlines as a stepping stone are over. The CRJ and ERJ are replacing 737’s and MD80’s on routes. The same mission should equal the same pay.
“If they wanted to pay pilots according to landings and takeoffs, the guys who are flying up north in the bush would be making far more than we are,” he said. “That’s not a recognized way of deciding how you should be paid in the airline industry.”
In other words, “I don’t want to see anything implimented that would not put me at the pinicle of the pay scale nor do I want to see other pilots get paid more than I did when I was doing that job.”
“The company wanted to set one group of its employees against the other and get them into a bidding war,” he said. “And, of course, the only people that win in that is the company, because you bid lower and lower and lower to fly the aircraft.”
Bingo! All professional pilots should be paid in line with the major airlines. Not as much as the major airlines, just in line with them. A first year major airline first officer shouldn’t make more than a 10 year captain at a regional. Bring up the captains pay. If the line was blurred between the regional and major airline pay scales then all this bickering over who flies what would be a moot point. The measure of a pilot isn’t the size of his aircraft, it’s the job that he does and how well he does it. I’ve met some awesome Lear and Citation pilots who get paid as much as 757 captains and they have no more than 3 people in the back at any given time. It’s the mission not the machine.
Nevertheless, conflict aside, Mr. Johnson also acknowledged that, in the end, there isn’t much to choose from between flying a 747 and flying a Dash 8. “Once the thing is pushed back from the gate, except for the number of throttles you have in your hand, there’s not much difference,” he said.
Except those pilots in the Dash 8 are worried that their electricity bill payment won’t clear the bank. 😉
By: binx - 17th June 2003 at 09:17
And just when you thought it couldn’t get anymore exciting, more pissing contests with pilots….
Air Canada pilots furious over arbitrator’s award
By JOHN PARTRIDGE
From Tuesday’s Globe and Mail
Air Canada pilots are furious over a new arbitrator’s award that, a spokesman says, will move many of their former Canadian Airlines counterparts hundreds of places higher on the merged carriers’ seniority list.
As a result, the pilots have decided to ask the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) to hold an emergency meeting to overturn the award by federal arbitrator Brian Keller, David Coles, chairman of the merger committee for pilots who flew with Air Canada before it absorbed Canadian three years ago, said Monday.
“Our pilots have been decimated by this award, absolutely decimated,” Mr. Coles said after Mr. Keller’s report was made public.
“I can’t emphasize how huge this is and how badly our pilots are going to react to this,” he added later. “We’re just starting to get a smattering of e-mails and the anger is huge.”
About two-thirds of Air Canada’s approximately 3,100 mainline pilots have always been with the airline, while the other one-third came from Canadian Airlines.
Not surprisingly, a spokesman for former Canadian Airlines pilots was more positive.
“We didn’t get everything we wanted … but it’s a lot better than where we were and we consider it a fair compromise,” said Rob McInnis, chairman of the group’s merger committee.
The award means that there will be more former Canadian Airlines pilots higher up the seniority list, he said. “And being higher up the list means everything to a pilot, because the seniority list determines the aircraft you fly, your pay, not only for pay purposes but also for pension purposes, vacation, bidding — you know, everything.”
The Keller award could threaten Air Canada’s efforts to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
Last week, when unhappiness over the way Mr. Keller appeared to be heading surfaced publicly, some sources suggested that the issue could derail Air Canada’s restructuring. Members of the Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) are to vote by the end of the month on a tentative agreement on the union’s contribution to Air Canada efforts to slash costs by $1.1-billion and keep flying. Anger over the seniority issue could lead to a rejection, they said.
Two panelists who considered the matter along with Mr. Keller, one nominated by the Air Canada pilots, the other by those from Canadian Airlines, disagreed with his decision and are to issue dissenting reports.
Mr. Coles and other ACPA representatives were so unhappy with how discussions were going with Mr. Keller that they refused to take part in the final day of talks the arbitrator had scheduled for June 7.
Mr. Keller noted this in his report Monday, saying that, while “a general direction had been communicated,” no final decision on the details of the award had been made at the time ACPA decided to stop participating.
The seniority issue was referred to Mr. Keller following a CIRB decision in July, 2002, that said a seniority list put together in 2001 by another arbitrator, Morton Mitchnick, was flawed because it appeared to favour Air Canada pilots. Pilots from Air Canada and Canadian Airlines agreed to be bound by Mr. Keller’s decision.
One of the main reasons for altering the Mitchnick award, Mr. Keller wrote, was that the economics of the airline have drastically deteriorated in the past two years, which put the former Canadian pilots at a further disadvantage.
Air Canada spokeswoman Laura Cooke said the company will comply with Mr. Keller’s decision and work with the unions to implement the revisions it will require. However, she also said the decision does not affect the airline’s day-to-day flight operations. “It is indeed business as usual,” she said.
In his report, Mr. Keller establishes new ratios by which pilots from Air Canada and Canadian Airlines are to be placed in the seniority list, broken out by aircraft type.
York University business professor Fred Lazar said Mr. Keller’s award “tends to split the difference” between the competing views of the Air Canada pilots and those who joined from Canadian Airlines.
ACPA initially argued that the Canadian Airlines pilots should be at the bottom of the seniority list because their employer was about to fail at the time Air Canada took it over, Prof. Lazar said. But the Canadian Airlines pilots argued that it was a merger of equals and seniority should be based on original date of hire.
Douglas Reid, a business professor at Queen’s University in Kingston who follows the airline industry, said he thinks the Keller report will prove to be more of a “speed bump” than a deal breaker in Air Canada’s restructuring. With few airlines hiring, ACPA members would have nothing to gain if the restructuring fails, he said.
As he did last week, Mr. Coles said Monday that ACPA is encouraging members to keep the issues of seniority and the tentative agreement separate because “without an airline, the seniority list doesn’t matter.”
But he said the Keller seniority list means that instead of facing the 16-per-cent pay cut contained in the tentative agreement, Air Canada pilots are looking at cuts of “25, 30, 35, 40 per cent . . . depending on where they are on the list.
“So we’re getting into money problems. Maybe they can’t pay for their house or their wife has to go out to work now to make ends meet … This is a bad award.”
He also said lawyers for ACPA have already made a preliminary telephone call to CIRB and will follow up with a letter “imminently.”
There were approximately 2,200 Air Canada mainline pilots and 1,250 Canadian Airlines pilots in October, 2000, the key date for the purposes of the Keller report.
Mr. Coles said his committee’s preliminary analysis suggests that, on average, Canadian Airlines pilots will rise on the combined seniority list by more than 300 positions while the average Air Canada pilot will drop by about 180 positions “give or take a few.”
The more seniority pilots have, the larger the aircraft they can fly — and the larger the aircraft, the more they earn. As a result, Mr. Coles said, the seniority list “dictates what position you can hold, how much you can earn, what kind of flying conditions you get, what vacation you can have — it’s all those things rolled together.”
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June 17, 2003 at 9:14 am