A series of podcasts for WestJet pilots brought to you by the WestJet Master Executive Council. Keep up to date and stay informed about your association and listen to what is happening with the union.
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In this episode, MEC Chair, Captain Jacob Astin, and Negotiating Chair, Captain Kevin Collins give an update on what to expect for upcoming negotiations and talk about the latest round of surveying.
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Welcome everybody to a pilot podcast for the MEC at WestJet here. Uh, I'm Jake Baston, the MEC chair. And I'm Kevin Collins, the, uh, MEC negotiating chair. Just a quick little, uh, shout-out. If you like these videos, please, uh, like and subscribe on YouTube. Uh, Spotify also has the full transcription, so if you wanna read only, it has it on there. Um, it's about been a mo- month, month or so since the last podcast was put out. Lots have been going on, uh, it's certainly a busy stretch, and we're gonna get into a few of the things right now. Um, first of all, background, we're in the Air Canada office in Toronto on August 7th, so the Air Canada MEC's been gracious enough to let us use the office for the work we're doing with the negotiates committee, uh, for the last couple weeks, so that's been great. Big shout-out to them, thank you very much. Um, gonna move right into, this is the first time you've been on the camera. Yeah. So why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself? Okay. Uh, yeah, my name's Kevin Collins. I'm a captain based in Toronto. Um, I'm the nego- the, the new MEC negotiating chair. Um, I've got a, I guess, a fair amount of experience in negotiations and, uh, contract stuff from my time at Sunwing. Uh, I spent quite a number of years as the grievance chair at Sunwing, and then that rolled into, uh, the negotiating chair position for our last collective agreement, and then, uh, that rolled into the MEC vice chair, uh, where I was, uh… Where I helped lead the, uh, merger, uh, arbitration or integration. And, uh, now I'm here helping out with the collective agreement three. So I'm very happy to be here and contributing, uh, with my experience and hopefully, uh, getting us a great contract. And thanks for taking on the role. No, no time at all to do this stuff, right? Yeah. You know, like- Like the summer. Like there goes summer. Um, the WestJet flight attendant strike was obviously the biggest thing that happened in the last couple weeks, uh, here at WestJet. From a negotiates standpoint, what did you take away from what they just went through? Uh, well, I guess I was most, uh, amazed by the, the voter, the uh, the strike vote for the, uh, the results were 99%. That was incredible turnout. Um, I think unity is one of the most important things we have in, uh, collective agreement negotiations, uh, especially when you're getting down to later stages. So seeing that level of unity and support was, uh, pretty fantastic, and I hope to see that from our pilots when we get down to the wire. Um, yeah. Otherwise, uh, I don't wanna say or speculate too much, but I, I do… I have requested that, uh, to have a sit down meeting with the, uh, negotiates committee, uh, just to pick their brain about how things went, you know, in the final, in the final couple days, in the final hours, what the company was up to or how they were acting at the bargaining table at the time. And try to learn some lessons from, uh, from them that we can apply to our collective agreement negotiations. Excellent. Also been extremely busy on the MEC side, um, you know, helping out with SPSE, um, and comms and everything else from our side. So, uh, congratulations to the Flight Attendant Group for getting a, uh, a tentative agreement- Yeah. Lot of work … uh, that we'll be voting on shortly. And you guys just came from the 86th special meeting in Calgary where the whole Negotes Committee joined the MEC, setting the bargaining mandate for CA3. Um, walk us through what the mandate setting actually means and what got decided. Yeah, so we're trying to have a pretty robust process where we are using the survey data as well as the, uh, LEC rep input to develop, uh, what it is that we're gonna be going after for, uh, the various sections of our collective agreement. So, uh, when we were down there in person as well as Phoenix, uh, a couple months prior, we, uh, we look at different sections. So for example, we looked at the, uh, deadheading section, and we pull from the survey data to see what it is are the hot topics, the issues revolved, revolved around that section. And, uh, we discuss them openly with the entire Negotes Committee and, uh, the LEC reps, and we kinda set, uh, set our priorities, which is, which ends up, uh, being written down into a mandate document. And that mandate document is what, uh, the negotiation committee f- follows to develop language and then ultimately, uh, negotiate with the company to try to achieve those items. And generally, it's, it's like survey results, you know, and then LEC reps. Yep. And then it goes to a Negotes Committee with you guys with that- Yep with that mandate document. Yeah. And then you guys then take that into negotiations- Yes … with the company. Exactly. Yep. Um, further to the survey a little bit, we, we did a couple things with this second survey that we put out, the second Negote survey, and we did a little bit of a friendly competition- Yes on Telegram. Yeah. So for those, uh, subscribed on Telegram, they would have seen some of these, uh, images, and we put the last one on the, the MEC update from that. Um, how did the second pilot survey for C3 turn out? Uh- And are there any plans for future surveys- Yeah, it was- … uh, for pilots to weigh in on? It was, uh, it was an excellent turnout, so thank you very much for, uh, everybody filling it out. I know that they're long. First one was quite long. This one we tried to, to trim down a little bit by only, uh, requiring you to fill out what was relevant to you. Um, but it's still a lot, it was still a long survey, so thank you for everybody to fill it out. There's, there's nothing more important than the survey data. That's, uh, that's the main focal point of where it is that we all, us in the negotiating committee and the LECs draw from. So, uh, the results were great, a much better turnout than the first one. Uh, so we were very happy with that. We got a lot of good data, um, and the survey company, uh, breaks it down for us in a, in a very easy, digestible way. So it was a great result, so I'm glad we have that, uh, information. Um, right now we don't have any plans for a third survey. Um, we may find the need for one depending on, uh- Depending on what comes from working through the various sections and developing language. We may, however, start polling to see where pilots', uh, opinion… If, if the survey data remains the same throughout the, uh, collective agreement negotiations, depending how long they take, we wanna take a pulse, I guess, of are these issues still the same priority that they were when you filled out the survey kind of thing. But that would be a much smaller targeted, um, poll as opposed to a big survey. And just shout out to the, everybody that filled out the surveys and fill out all the surveys that we do, including the flight deck feedback surveys. And another shout-out to the LEC reps that, that- Oh, yeah … tried to really get everybody to do the surveys and, and promoting that on their individual Telegram channels. And so it was just, it was noticeable that the, the, there was an increase in participation in the second- Yes … survey. Yeah. So, uh, hopefully, um, you know, everybody liked that little friendly competition. Yeah, the reps did a great job, uh, trying to convince and, and motivate everybody to fill out, uh, the survey. Um, we could wa- the last, the last day especially, we could see as the, as the reps were pushing their various pilots at the bases that, uh, the results were kinda go- neck and neck for a number of the bases. So it was, uh, it was, it was fun to watch. And the competition between bases was like a percent. Yeah, yeah. It was like a single percent between the bases. Yeah, yeah. It was incredible. Um, so speaking of the next contract- Yeah … uh, negotiations and what's next, like, where, where do things stand right now with CA3 and, like, what are your, what's your committee working on right now in the Air Canada offices here in Toronto, and what does the next 30 to 60 days look like? Yeah, so we spent, uh, the last, uh, well, I guess the last two months and probably the, the rest of this month working on developing all the language we're gonna be passing to the company. Right here, uh, this week, we've got, uh, John Jenike, the scheduling, uh, chair and SME, uh, working on the scheduling section, hours of service reserve, uh, developing that language. So that's where we're at right now. Uh, what's coming up? More language developments over the rest of the summer. Uh, we're, we can serve notice to bargain, uh- Yeah … uh, September 1st is the first day, so we expect to be serving the notice of bargain to the, uh, company at the beginning of September. Um, and then, uh, we haven't locked down any dates yet to meet with the company, but we're hoping by the, uh, end of September, we hope to be starting to sit down and starting to meet with the company and, uh, kick off actual collective bargaining. Sounds good. And, and besides the surveys, for pilots that wanna make sure their voice is actually heard and seen through negotiations process, what's the best way to do that? Uh, talk to your reps. Your reps, we got a direct line to the reps, and they bring up their… They bring up any issues that their membership is, uh, is raising with them. So that's one way. Fill out DARTS, uh, quite a few of you do fill out DARTS, things that you've missed in the survey that you want us to know, or new thoughts you've come up with since the surveys have happened. So we read all the DARTS that you send in, so that's another way to, you know, bring, uh, bring issues to our attention. So those are two ways. Another one's, obviously, if there's further surveys- Yeah … that data then directly- Yeah … directs what you guys do for the, at the bargaining table. Yes, it does. Yeah. So that's, that's crucial if there, you know, if and when there's future surveys. Yep. Um, the other one is there's Telegram channels that each base has, um, that the reps will be putting a lot of content out in, so that's really good. Thank you, Kevin. Uh- Thanks … you're spending your summer here in, in the offices, uh, when everybody's out golfin' and boating, so, a- and flying. Um, so thank you very much for the first quick little, uh, communication we have here to the pilot group. And it won't be the last. No. Thanks, uh, thanks for having me. I'm sure I'll be back. Awesome. Thanks much. See ya. Thanks all for tuning in.
