Earlier this week, the WestJet negotiating committee of the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with their employer.
This is the latest development in what has been a rocky bargaining process, and it pauses a strike that had been in place since 28 June 2024.
The AMFA represents about 680 aircraft maintenance engineers and workers in related skilled trade groups employed with WestJet across Canada, including in Calgary and Edmonton.
In an email to The Alberta Worker, Bret Oestreich, AMFA’s national president, confirmed that there are 260 aircraft maintenance engineers in Calgary and 65 in Edmonton. He wouldn’t confirm the number of other skilled trade groups in Alberta or whether there were any members elsewhere in Alberta.
These workers have been trying to negotiate their first contract since joining the AMFA in March of last year. AMFA filed a certification application with Canada Industrial Relations Board in January 2023 on behalf of the workers, after collecting representation cards from nearly 75% of the workers who would be covered by AMFA. The workers reached out to them the previous November regarding unionizing.
The aircraft maintenance engineers were the last major employee workgroup at WestJet Airlines to unionize.
From the start, WestJet has tried to interfere with that unionization, beginning with attempting to limit the scope of representation.
AMFA wanted to include the following positions in their new bargaining group: aircraft maintenance engineers, (including apprentices), aircraft maintenance leads, avionics technicians (including apprentices), inspector crew leads, maintenance planners, furnishing technicians (including apprentices), maintenance controllers, senior configuration control specialists, fleet engineers, technical instructors, senior technical instructors, technical representatives, and senior technical services specialists.
WestJet, on the other hand, wanted to restrict it to just aircraft maintenance engineers (including structure), avionics technicians, aircraft maintenance leads, and intenance leads, avionics technicians (including apprentices), inspector crew leads. This would have removed nearly 100 workers from the bargaining group.
Ultimately, the CIRB ruled in favour of the workers, but also including day-of operations planners and furnishing technicians (including apprentices), adding an additional 30 or so workers. The CIRB argued that all of thes workers “share a community of interests in that the work performed is directed towards the repair, maintenance, and trade certification of aircraft”.
However, WestJet responded by trying to replace aircraft maintenance lead and inspector crew lead positions wit ha newly created operations manager position, which would allow them to reduce the size of the bargaining unit. AMFA is currently litigating them before the CIRB regarding this unionbusting tactic.
AMFA wasted no time in filing notice with WestJet that they wanted to commence bargaining immediately.
WestJet responded to that request by filing a judicial review of CIRB’s certification of the nearly 700 workers in May 2023. They also began removing benefits for worker representatives.
Prior to unionizing with AMFA, some of these workers were represented by the Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Association. WestJet provided paid shift release, travel benefits, and other rights that helped AMEA officers represent technical operations workers.
Once the workers unionized with AMFA, making AMEA defunct, WestJet cancelled those benefits and refused to provide them to the AMFA counterparts, even if they were performing the same responsibilities.
The first bargaining session took place last September, with WestJet declining an open bargaining process (which would’ve allowed any AMFA member to attend bargaining sessions). WestJet also tried to postpone negotiations, claiming their merger with Sunwing as their excuse, but AMFA declined, and bargaining resumed in October.
Despite several bargaining sessions in October, November, and December, WestJet filed a Notice of Dispute with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, which they hoped would lead to the appointment of a conciliation officer to monitor future negotiations between the parties.
However, filing this after just 4 months of bargaining is just a ploy to rush negotiations and resort to economic coercion, as it is a prerequisite to being able to carry out an authorized lockout.
This past March, the CEO of WestJet, Alexis von Hoensbroech, called ongoing negotiations with AMFA “contentious” and gave a veiled threat in a company-wide webinar, stating, in part:
“With regards to tech ops, there are various operating models in the airline industry. There are airlines that have the majority of their tech ops done in-house. There are airlines that actually have no in-house tech ops at all and outsource it all. So, there are various ways.”
By this point, the two parties had agreed on just 11 articles in a tentative first collective bargaining agreement. However, 24 articles previously exchanged remained open, and at least 15 articles hadn’t even been exchanged. WestJet had still not presented proposals addressing wages, schedules, or job security.
However, by the end of March, WestJet finally had proposed the following wage increases:
| Year 1 | 3.5% |
| Year 2 | 2.0% |
| Year 3 | 2.0% |
| Year 4 | 1.0% |
| Year 5 | 1.0% |
That works out to 9.5% combined, and an average of 1.9% per year.
The workers’ bargaining team “expressed fury” to this “low offer”. Oestreich classified it as a wage reduction.
“Given the expected rate of inflation, the proposal actually constitutes a wage reduction with a continued chokehold on industry wages for these skilled professionals.”
The AMFA countered, which prompted WestJet to increase their offer to 4% in the first year and 2% in each of the last two years, with no changes in the second and third years. That would be a combined 12% over 5 years, or an annual average of 2.4%. It still was insufficient, and the union continued to push for more.
Contract negotiations stalled, prompting threats of strike from the workers and lockout from the employer, but the two parties finally announced a tentative agreement on 5 May 2024.
However, during the ratification vote on 11 June 2024, over 97% of those who participated rejected the employer’s offer, which was still “more than 30% below the prevailing rate at North American carriers”. The participation rate for the ratification vote was 99%.
The following day, the union published the results of the strike vote they held the previous month. Of the 681 workers eligible to participate in the strike vote, 90% did so, and 99.18% approved going on strike.
Normally, workers can then use strike vote authorization as leverage to get the employer to make more concessions. But that only works if the employers comes to the negotiating table, which WestJet was refusing to do. Instead, the company cancelled previously scheduled bargaining sessions and begged the Canadian government to force the tentative agreement onto the workers, even though nearly all of them had democratically rejected it.
In response, the workers said they planned to strike. WestJet demanded that the CIRB intervene, but instead, the board rejected the employer’s application for an injunction, paving way for the strike.
Scared at the prospect of having to cancel flights, WestJet agreed to return to the bargaining table, and the union put its plans to strike on hold.
As part of this next round of bargaining, WestJet raised their wage increase by another percentage point over the entire 5 years, but even that was still 7 percentage points shy of what the workers were asking for.
AMFA countered and gave the company a 72-hour strike notice. WestJet did likewise with a lockout notice, as well as litigate for the federal government to interfere with the workers’ constitionally-guaranteed right to strike.
WestJet refused to make significant concession in their negotiations with those 72 hours, so the workers went on strike, as they had promised, on 28 June 2024.
Finally, after two days of striking, however, WestJet made meaningful concessions to their wage offer, and the two parties reached a tentative agreement on the last day of June.
Here’s how those wages break down:
| Year 1 | 15.50% |
| Year 2 | 3.25% |
| Year 3 | 2.50% |
| Year 4 | 2.50% |
| Year 5 | 2.50% |
This comes to a total of 26.25% over the course of the contract, or annual average of 5.25%. That’s 2.5 times what the company originally offered.
As well, these workers will be paid 1.75 times for overtime, up from 1.5.
This is a tentative agreement, however. The workers will still need to vote on whether to ratify it. The union hasn’t specified when that will take place, but it will probably be this month.
6 replies on “WestJet strike leads to 26.25% raise”
Very concerned this means job cuts. AHS has asked dept to cut 5% of budget. Certain info patients received, 50%, will now only be avail on AHS portal. It’s decided by July 31. If it happens, it means job cuts. Boss has been mum on alternative work.
How will WestJet raises affect AHS workers?
Sounds like that employee association really did a great job, congratulations to them, in solidarity
All this means is higher prices for the consumers
Weird how people only say that when workers want to be able to keep up with inflation but never when corporations announce profits.
Should add up to less than 5 cents per passenger to cover these costs 🤔