Air Canada and its pilots reach tentative agreement | 42% salary increases over four years

Significant wage increases await Air Canada pilots if they say yes to the tentative agreement reached between their union and their employer. They will reach almost 42% over four years, according to information obtained by The Press.

Alongside a 26% increase retroactive to September 2023, annual increases of 4% are planned for 2024, 2025 and 2026, according to the broad outlines of the agreement in principle announced early Sunday morning and which we were able to consult.

“We said we would remain committed to reaching an agreement until the last minute and we are pleased with this agreement in principle which recognizes the contributions and professionalism of our pilots,” Air Canada spokesperson Christophe Hennebelle said in a statement.

In addition, 5,200 pilots represented by the International Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) will be entitled to a ratification bonus that could range from $20,000 for rookies to $85,000 for pilots with the most seniority, such as the captain of a large aircraft.

Just days before a potential labour dispute that could have started as early as Wednesday, the country’s largest air carrier and ALPA have reached an agreement in principle. However, details had not been released at the time of the announcement.

If the planes of the maple leaf company had been grounded, up to 128,000 passengers per day would have seen their plans disrupted, according to the aviation data firm Cirium.

Waiting for the pilots

The pilots, who will vote on the deal in the next month, will continue to fly their employer’s planes until then.

The increases obtained by ALPA are well beyond what Air Canada was proposing. According to our information, the Montreal-based company was proposing increases totaling 30% by 2027.

“I think it’s fair to say that the union negotiated well on this issue,” said aviation expert and McGill University lecturer John Gradek, after being informed of the contents of the tentative agreement.

The main issue that stumped the negotiations between the two sides was wages. ALPA was inspired by the United States, where recent increases for airline pilots at companies such as Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines ranged from 34 to 40 percent.

The tentative agreement between Air Canada and its pilots, if approved by union members, will be in effect until September 30, 2027. Their last collective agreement was ratified in 2014 and provided for annual salary increases of around 2%.

According to the scales shown in the document obtained by The Pressa relief pilot of a large aircraft, such as an Airbus A330, would be paid $87.50 per hour, while the hourly pay for a captain for this type of aircraft would be $424.60.

Charlene Hudy, who is responsible for Air Canada pilots at ALPA, believes that it is the solidarity of the latter that has allowed the union to make progress.

“Although the road to this agreement was exceptionally long, the steadfast commitment and unified determination of our pilots was the catalyst that allowed us to secure this contract,” she said in commenting on the agreement in principle.

Political turn

The impasse between Air Canada and its pilots had ramifications even in the political sphere. On September 12, The Press revealed that the airline had requested unprecedented intervention from the Trudeau government to avoid grounding its planes.

In a letter to federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon, the airline asked him to impose binding arbitration even before its pilots went on strike.

By acquiescing, Ottawa would have gone even further than the exceptional gesture it made last month, by intervening – shortly after the start of labour disputes – to end the paralysis of activities at the Canadian National Railway Company (CN) and Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC).

On the sidelines of an economic announcement in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue last Friday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave the impression that his government was prepared to be more patient this time.

Mr. Trudeau had explained that he did not want to start “to be in a world where employers or unions can say to themselves ‘ah no, we’re going to wait for the government to sort things out’.”

“It doesn’t work like that,” he had said.