WestJet Encore pilots have given the green light to a deal with their employer, averting a strike at the regional airline.
The Air Line Pilots Association said its members have ratified a five-year contract that offers higher pay, more flexible schedules and “a better work-life balance.”
The union says about 79 per cent of the pilots who cast a ballot approved the collective agreement, with the vast majority of the carrier’s 350-plus pilots participating in the vote.
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Carin Kenny, who heads the union’s WestJet Encore contingent, said the deal establishes “a level of career progression” toward flying bigger planes at the carrier’s mainline operation — crucial to attracting new pilots and retaining those already on board.
The contract goes into effect immediately, with retroactive pay to Jan. 1.
The vote this week cemented a tentative agreement reached on May 30, steering clear of the turbulence wrought by 11th-hour deals of the sort reached last year between WestJet and mainline pilots as well as aviators at its now-shuttered Swoop subsidiary.
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