Air Canada pilots started bargaining talks in June amid a global pilot shortage that’s given aviators all over North America leverage to seek new contracts. Negotiations have already been held this year with airlines in both the United States and Canada, including Calgary-based WestJet Airlines Ltd.

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In May, Air Canada aviators officially joined the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the same union that represents WestJet pilots. Now, 95 per cent of all professional Canadian pilots are represented by ALPA, which is also the world’s largest aviators union. Charlene Hudy, ALPA’s Air Canada chair, said members are looking for a comparable contract to those at competitors, including United Airlines Inc. and Delta Air Lines. Pilots at Delta in March negotiated a 34 per cent wage increase over the next four years. In contrast, their counterparts at Air Canada have received a two per cent increase on average each year since 2014, lagging the rate of inflation.

The Financial Post’s Denise Paglinawan recently spoke to Hudy about negotiations, previous bargaining talks and what Air Canada pilots are hoping to achieve. The following interview has been edited and condensed.

Q: What are Air Canada pilots looking for in this deal?

CH: With the current contract negotiations, we are looking to address our issues of career progression, job security, aviation safety and really closing that growing gap between ourselves and our American counterparts. We’re emerging from a very stale collective agreement that we’ve been under for just shy of a decade, so we’re looking to really update a lot of our contract language.

Q: What pushed the union to get this done this year?

CH: We did exercise our escape clause this year to go into full bargaining a year early because of the environment that surrounds our pilot group right now. The fact that we were under this 10-year deal, this decade-long deal, it’s just grown stale and outdated. Our pilot group is falling behind other pilot groups within North America and this is an opportunity for us to be at the bargaining table a year earlier.

Q: Can Canadian airlines keep up with what U.S. pilots are being offered?

CH: We’re certainly anticipating a closing of that gap. I firmly believe that a Canadian pilot is as valuable as an American pilot. So this wage discrepancy that we have with my counterparts at United, (who) just ratified their deal on the 29th, they’re making twice as much as us now, if not more, and that’s just not acceptable. But I will also say it’s not just about the money.

Q: How did those bargaining talks from other airlines inspire Air Canada pilots and how will they help you in this process?

CH: What we’ve seen happening in North America from the WestJet pilot group to the Delta pilot group to the United pilot group and American Airlines as well, especially as it relates to our counterparts in the States, they’re now at this place where they’ve gained back what they lost. A lot of pilot groups have sacrificed a lot through the downtimes in our aviation industry, which can be very boom or bust. So they’re getting back to a place where they were in the mid ’90s. So that’s certainly something that the Air Canada pilots are looking at, too. There’s no reason that we should be that far behind our industry counterparts.

Q: Can you talk more about that? What are you hoping to get back?

CH: When we consider where the pilot group was and where we are now, a concern for many Canadians and many North Americans is we haven’t kept up with inflation, not even remotely. So that’s a big concern and it’s challenging for my pilot group.

Q: Can you talk about the global pilot shortage right now? How does the union think this should be addressed?

CH: I believe that by ensuring that this profession is a good profession by actually addressing these quality of life concerns and the wage gap, you’re going to attract and retain people into the pilot profession. So I think people who are contemplating a potential career, younger people who are thinking, ‘Well, maybe I do want to be a pilot, but I could also be a lawyer or an engineer or a doctor.’ And right now when they look at that initial investment to become a pilot, (it) is quite substantial. It could be decades before you actually realize that return on your investment to becoming a pilot. To address this global pilot supply problem, you have to value us for the professionals that we are.

Q: What quality of life changes for aviators are you hoping come out of this?

CH: I love to fly. The pilots that I represent love flying. It’s one of the reasons we got into this profession in the first place. Of course, to be able to go to work and truly love your job is fantastic. However, I will say that this doesn’t mean we want to do it 24/7. There has to be some work-life balance there. As much as we do love flying, on the flip side we’re spending a lot of time away from home. We’re spending a lot of time away from our families, our loved ones, and there has to be some balance there. My pilots are missing birthdays or missing holidays. Yes, we love our jobs. We take our responsibility of flying Canadian passengers around Canada and the world very seriously. We take a lot of pride in that. This is where we’re asking Air Canada to invest in us and value us and let us have that work-life balance.

Q: Going back on previous pilot negotiations, specifically WestJet, what did you see in those talks that you’re hoping Air Canada pilots could also secure?

CH: I was able to follow the WestJet negotiations fairly closely, thanks to being part of the same union as the WestJet pilots. I think what they achieved there, they’ve stepped above us (Air Canada pilots) in terms of pay and some quality of life issues, too. Considering that they unionized not all that long ago, this was their collective agreement No. 2, and they had some scope issues, they had job protection issues that they had to address. I think that’s really good that they were able to address them in that collective agreement No. 2.

I will say for Air Canada pilots, we’ve been unionized for decades. This is not our collective agreement No. 2. We’ve been in a bargaining environment with Air Canada for a long time. So where the WestJet pilots were and where we are, are two different places. We look at Air Canada being a worldwide airline, it’s why we’re looking for a world class contract that is comparable to the airlines that Air Canada competes with, like United and Delta.

Q: How will consolidating with ALPA, seeing what U.S. pilots have won in their bargaining, help with your negotiations?

CH: Air Canada pilots overwhelmingly chose to merge with the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) because my pilot group (formerly Air Canada Pilots Association) saw the value in being part of a bigger union. This union represents 42 pilot groups, 76,000 members strong. Part of the advantage of being part of ALPA, as we saw on (Sept. 29) when we held our informational picket in Toronto, is having our counterparts from the United States come up and stand with us in support of our contract negotiations. That pilot community is very valuable, as is the experience and support we receive from other pilot groups while we are going through our own negotiations.

Q: At what point would you consider a full strike?

CH: Certainly that is not a situation that we want to be in. We want to go to work. We want to take our passengers where they need to go. At this point in time, we’re still at the table with Air Canada, we’re still engaging and passing proposals. So right now, I want to see us come to a deal at the table with Air Canada. It’s too early for me to say if that’s something that might happen in the future.

Q: How optimistic are your members with these talks?

CH: Air Canada pilots have been incredibly supportive and engaged. They are feeling the pains of coming out from under this almost decade-long collective agreement, and they’re well aware of what else is happening in our pilot profession, all the other pilot deals that are being made around them. From what I’ve heard from my pilots, they’ve never felt so unified and so engaged and so resolved to achieve this world class contract that we’re looking for.

Q: What do you think people should know about this process?

CH: Myself, the leadership team with Air Canada pilots and all Air Canada pilots like to emphasize to the Canadian public that we really do love our jobs. We do take it very seriously, transporting our passengers safely and efficiently all over the world. And what we’re trying to do right now is get Air Canada to invest in our pilot group so that we can retain and attract pilots at Air Canada.

This country is vast and this country requires a sustainable aviation network. Some of the network contractions we’ve seen within the Air Canada network does concern us and so we’re hoping to achieve through these contract negotiations a very stable pipeline of pilots in Canada flowing through Air Canada and staying at Air Canada.

• Email: dpaglinawan@postmedia.com

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