Episode 47 - Contract Comparison

Introducing First Officer JD Sutherland, Interim Chair of the Negotiations Committee. The episode introduces a 125-page contract comparison document summarizing 10 collective agreements (WestJet plus nine North American peers) as an educational tool as WestJet Pilots ramp up for contract negotiations.

00:00 Introductions
00:28 MEC Changes
02:46 Current Work and Priorities
03:20 Contract Comparison Guide
04:31 How to Read It
05:03 Stay Engaged Next Steps
05:46 Joining the Committee
08:24 Wrap Up

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Transcript

Jacob Astin: 0:07

Good afternoon.

JD Sutherland: 0:08

Good afternoon. Thanks for having me.

Jacob Astin: 0:10

Welcome to a little bit of video here. Introduce yourself.

JD Sutherland: 0:13

My name is JD Sutherland pilot here at WestJet for the last three and a half years been volunteering most of my time here, I got in right away and now I am the interim chair of the Negotiations Committee. Committee.

Jacob Astin: 0:28

Spectacular you know, address the elephant in the room a little bit here. It's been a few months in the MEC with the Westjet Union that's been, you know, a few tough months.

JD Sutherland: 0:36

Mm-hmm.

Jacob Astin: 0:37

A lot of changes here. I guess I'm here now 'cause there was changes in the MEC. And the MEC's replaced a couple of Negots members in the last month, month and a half. I feel we're in a good, good spot now. And we're focused on the tasks at hand. For the pilot group and so that they have the information they require going into negotiations later in the year. I just wanted to say that ALPA is a pilot directed union and your MEC status reps have actioned changes they feel set us up properly for the year ahead. If anybody would like to know more about specifics about changes in the specific committees please do send a dart to your rep for information. We just came back from the Montreal meeting.

JD Sutherland: 1:18

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jacob Astin: 1:18

And you and I both weren't in the room a lot of the time when

JD Sutherland: 1:21

Yeah. I got kicked out a couple times. Yep.

Jacob Astin: 1:23

When the status reps made, made, made decisions and, and committee members and such. So I think it, as they were the ones in the room, I think it makes, makes sense for pilot group to reach out to, to them. Just kind of had a few questions here. For yourself, JD you know, as we were just talking, there's been a lot of changes in the MEC in the short period of time. What do you want your fellow pilots to know about where the Negots committee stands today and why you believe we're still in the right path? Heading into CA3?

JD Sutherland: 1:51

Well, so. Currently the committee we have two members is myself and Sohil that are sort of continuing the plans that had been undertaken from, you know, a year ago when the committee was first put together. So I think for the pilot group, you know, that has not derailed. Changes in personnel happen all the time. You know, we have it in the MEC, we have it in our, our elected reps, and we have it in our volunteer positions on committees. So the, the composition changes. The support continues to be there, kind of no matter what. Through the, you know, no matter who's there in various roles. Our committees have support and we also have purpose. The purpose is still there, so we are continuing in the same direction that we were before that we will, as long as I'm on the committee, as long as someone, whoever else is on the committee, the direction is to achieve the best collective agreement for this pilot group.

Jacob Astin: 2:45

So a hundred percent. So as we've gone through a bit of turbulence

JD Sutherland: 2:48

Yeah.

Jacob Astin: 2:48

Lately where can you tell the pilots on where the, where things actually stand right now?

JD Sutherland: 2:53

So like, we've been busy and we've been working hard on a contract comparison. We've been working hard on getting our first survey ready. We've been working hard on forging new relationships with the changes that we've seen to create a new sort of a working, strategy moving forward to bigger and better things. So, you know, we're, we are very busy bees squirreling away whether it's at the office, at home, and so there's, there's, and there's no shortage of work to do.

Jacob Astin: 3:20

So speaking of work, obviously the main reason for this video and it's attached to it'll be attached to an email with the contract comparison document.

JD Sutherland: 3:29

Yes.

Jacob Astin: 3:29

Which is 125 page document that you guys have created over the past many months. Can you walk pilots through what the document actually is what went into building it and why it's the right starting point for a negotiations process?

JD Sutherland: 3:42

So, as you said, it's a 125 page document that is designed to be a comprehensive educational tool for our pilot group. It's not an easy read, it will take time. Unfortunately you know, collective agreements are long pieces of literature. So when you summarize them, even though the, it's quite short in comparison to the document, the summary is still quite long and we've had to compile summaries of 10 different collective agreements. So we're using what we deemed to be the best comparators in North America. So it's a total of ourselves compared to nine of our peers. So it is a, it's a long document, but you have time to read it. You got time to skim through it. It is important.

Jacob Astin: 4:26

So ideally we'd love everybody to read through the entire document.

JD Sutherland: 4:30

Yep.

Jacob Astin: 4:31

But for those that feel a little overwhelmed, like what are the two or three things you'd want them to focus on first?

JD Sutherland: 4:36

I think just reminding yourself that you know, you are not supposed to be a subject matter expert. This is an educational tool. There is no timeline. Take your time to read what you know you're comfortable going through. Take it one section at a time. If you don't finish it, there's no, there's no bonus points for completion or not, but the aim is to try to get the pilot group as educated as possible as we go into negotiations for CA three.

Jacob Astin: 5:03

And once they've read it.

JD Sutherland: 5:04

Yeah.

Jacob Astin: 5:04

What next?

JD Sutherland: 5:07

Well. If you've read it, congratulations. Give yourself a pat on the back. It would took us a long time to put together. So we appreciate you coming along this journey with us. I mean, it's really important that the pilot group comes with us. You know, they're, they're the ones that decide how we shape our, our future, right? So stay engaged. Keep your eyes open for, you know, fast reads that come the Did You Know's, any other communications that we're putting out. Like it's important that we have our group engaged with us so they can follow along and we feel their support comes in super handy when we're actually at the table, when we feel the support of 2300 pilots behind us. You know, it creates a confidence that's hard to ignore.

Jacob Astin: 5:45

A hundred percent. We're conducting interviews for two new committee positions in the Negot's committee next week.

JD Sutherland: 5:50

Yeah,

Jacob Astin: 5:51

starting next week. What does someone actually do on your committee day to day, and what kind of pilot would make a strong candidate?

JD Sutherland: 5:59

Well, I wish I could say it was as glamorous as what some people might think it is. They have this image in their head of us pounding tables or flipping'em and all that kind of stuff. It's actually quite boring. A lot of it is dealing with documents, language, diving into details and it does take some endurance. And really that's, that's the key is, is the endurance comes from a willingness to put in the work. You need to have a drive, a determination, and really all it takes is an attitude of how can I help? That's, that's the attitude we look for. So on my day-to-day, I'm up, I'm looking through documents. I'm doing a lot of reading, a lot of researching you know, putting my ideas down on paper, consulting with my other members, consulting with the MEC, making sure that the, you know, the LEC reps are involved in, in some of this as well. It really is just you know, taking a, a dive into the details of what it is that we do. For our, for our careers.

Jacob Astin: 6:55

No, that makes sense. So for anybody sitting at home

JD Sutherland: 6:58

Yep.

Jacob Astin: 6:59

You know, watching this video and thinking about potentially they might want to do this kind of thing what would you say directly to that pilot who's thinking about putting the name forward but hasn't yet?

JD Sutherland: 7:11

I'll, I'll put it like this. When I first started my volunteer journey years ago at my previous airline, I had no experience. I didn't even have what I would call a particularly technical skillset, but I had a drive to wanna make things better. And if you have that same drive, if you, you know, how can I help? That's really all you need. That's the, the fundamental building block. If you're good with Excel, if you have you know, a mathematical background, if you are, you know, you've got an eye for details. If you're a super nerd and you're like, I don't like this clause in the contract, those are all bonuses. But really it comes down to that attitude of, of how can I help? And I, I want to get involved. That's. Basically it.

Jacob Astin: 7:57

That's awesome. So we are officially, you know, if anybody has a desire to do this.

JD Sutherland: 8:02

Yep.

Jacob Astin: 8:02

The portal is still open on the ALPA website to volunteer in this capacity. And we're gonna be starting negotiations next week. So

JD Sutherland: 8:14

interviews, you mean not negotiations

Jacob Astin: 8:17

as I'm reading two things at once. True. So if anybody wants to put in an application, please do so. We're gonna be cutting that off shortly. My last question, if there's one thing you want every pilot watching this video to feel when it's over, what is it?

JD Sutherland: 8:32

Some reassurance that the support is in place. The, the volunteers that are here are doing their jobs. We're working for you, the pilot group to ensure that CA3 is, nothing but an improvement over CA2.

Jacob Astin: 8:50

Spectacular. Thank you for all your effort.

JD Sutherland: 8:52

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Jacob Astin: 8:53

And we'll see you more on the videos coming up a lot.

JD Sutherland: 8:55

Oh, you betcha. Thanks.

Jacob Astin: 8:56

Yeah, thanks. Cheers.