WR Cage

Full article here: WestJet pilots vote overwhelmingly in favour of strike action | CBC News

Bolding mine, in reference to the question above, I think everything is stable for the May long weekend per the quote from the pilots. However with 86% of all pilots voting to strike and the longstanding Management attitude against unions, I think we will have a strike before Trans Mountain Pipeline Deadline of May 31.

Error 601

It's amazing what one toxic leader can do to a company in a short period of time.

Sopwith

Yes. Especially if the leader is a union leader.

Eugeniusz Bodo

My strong preference would be to NEVER do it but I am afraid it is too late now!

tcook052

Let's hope not as WS brand will take an immeasurable hit if there is a pilots strike. I have friends who've booked a 40th anniversary Alaska cruise and months ago booked WS flights YEG-YVR roundtrip and if their travel is affected they may forgive but are unlikely to forget and all the years of goodwill that's been built up with the airline brand will ebb away like snow in the warm Spring sunshine. Just MHO of course and it's okay if YYMV.

Error 601

I despise unions but Saretsky was swaggering towards the abyss for years with either the approval or indifference of the board.

cur

you're right. the poll indicated 90 per cent but the actual ballot count was 91 per cent.
ws has been dysfunctional for years. like any fast growing, insular company that built its success over keeping things the same a'la southwest. name me one normal north american airline with a jet fleet that has non union pilots. i'm not saying this rhetorically, i'm genuinely trying to think of one other than air north. i thought allegiant but they're teamsters

amazing how many people think the sky is falling because pilots want a contract and protection from outsourcing domestic flying to slovakian pilots

strikes happen, people get mad, they vow over twitter to never fly again (like united customers today over the removal of tomato juice) then 1 year later they see a flight to lax that's 15% cheaper than the 2nd cheapest and has the most superior schedule. ws will overcome, this is what happens within companies sometimes

smallmj

So we should avoid flying in any Air Canada plane flown by a pilot with 20 years of experience because that pilot went on strike in 1998?

cedric

Obviously. Only fly with legacy CP crews or those hired after the last AC pilot strike

tracon

I've been that initially the pilots will refuse overtime.
That would probably only affect 5-10% of flights

We'll see how things unfold of course.

I wonder if there will be any solidarity from Encore pilots?

Fiordland

I have never been a fan of unions but have worked in unionized environments (on the management side). You come to accept them as being part of the process. That said at the end of the day management ends up getting the union it deserves. The fact they even need to hold a strike vote is as much an indication of managements inability to respond to the needs of their staff as anything.

Sopwith

I also worked in management for many years in an environment where a small contingent of a much larger employee group belonged to a large international union. My observation was that when it came to negotiating a contract there were three parties: the company, the union and the employees. The union and the employees were rarely aligned in their objectives. The company was in it for economy and flexibility. The employees were in it for fairness and reasonable compensation, which they saw all the other non-union employees getting. The union was in it to "win", usually with little regard to what the members wanted, and in so doing strove do turn it into an adversarial process, which invariably put their own members off side.

Eventually the union guys decertified, but it took many years because none of them had the courage to stand up to the union. What tipped the scale was when they finally realized that over a ten year period the non-union employees got a slightly higher aggregate wage increase. By turning it into an adversarial process the union caused the company to push back, and they ended up with less.

Error 601

I have been in some extremely ugly union situations, also in management - but without fail everywhere I have ever worked when there was a manager or non-union employee who was running their mouth in a way that was unhelpful to the purposes of tranquility and cooperation they were muzzled immediately. My old company even came down on a secretary for referring to picketers as .......s on Facebook.

Whereas Saretsky got up on stage and told people to ostracize and harass their fellow employees until they quit. The anti-union campaign that WestJet ran was of about the caliber you would expect from a fast food franchise owner.

aerobod

Buzz Lightyear