Did WestJet pilots reject $300K+ salaries? Union says figures ‘cherry-picked’

Global News obtained a memo sent by WestJet's vice-president of flight operations hours after the Air Line Pilots Association issued a 72-hour strike notice Monday evening.

WestJet is telling its pilots it was offering “significant” wage increases that would make them among the highest paid workers in Canada before the pilots’ union issued notice for a strike that could begin this week, Global News has learned.

But the union says the “cherry-picked” six-figure salaries included in internal communications do not represent the full scope of the offer they rejected, and criticized the airline for bargaining in public.

Global News obtained a memo sent to pilots by John Aaron, WestJet’s vice-president of flight operations, to the airline’s pilots hours after the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) issued a 72-hour strike notice Monday evening.

WestJet pilots are set to walk off the job at 3 a.m. Eastern on Friday unless a deal is reached.

In the memo, Aaron said the airline’s latest offer — which expired after the strike notice was issued — would have raised salaries to “around” $300,000 for a narrowbody aircraft captain and $350,000 for a widebody aircraft captain, before overtime and other stipends.

Aaron said those wages would have made narrowbody captains and first officers the highest-paid in Canada.

Narrowbody aircraft are the more common passenger planes, like the Boeing 737, that have a single aisle separating passenger seating. WestJet’s current fleet is mostly made up of narrowbody planes.

“Over the term of the agreement, our proposal would have seen wage rate growth, across-the-board increases and redesigned core compensation structures to dramatically increase take home pay on every pay cheque,” he wrote.