Fellow Flight Crew Members,

Last week, Arbitrator Kaplan issued his arbitration award on the long-fought Sunwing Captain Upgrade Bypass Grievances.

This case began in 2019 when your union challenged a Company upgrade award that, in our view, ignored Master Seniority and bypassed qualified candidates. The issue was grieved in 2020 and was placed on hold due to the COVID-19 shutdown. When operations resumed, the Company refused to correct the errors then even worse, the following three captain upgrade awards repeated the same violations. Our grievances alleged that Sunwing management failed to solicit trainer feedback, applied the hours matrix inconsistently, and didn’t objectively consider training records nor did they provide specific reasons for bypassing candidates, in violation of our Collective Agreement.

When arbitration began, the Company was required to disclose hundreds of documents including training records, emails, messages, and notes. A dedicated volunteer committee spent hundreds of hours analyzing this evidence, creating spreadsheets, and testifying across numerous arbitration hearing dates to ensure the record was complete. These efforts demonstrated major inconsistencies in how candidates were selected and established the damages and loss of income for affected FCMs.

Arbitrator Kaplan heard five days of testimony and evidence throughout 2024 and 2025. He acknowledged the flawed selection process but emphasized the many unknowns in our case. Would Candidate A have passed if awarded the upgrade? Or would the upgrade have gone lower on the list? How much weight should be given to hours or training records? No amount of evidence could answer these questions and prove that a bypassed FCM would have been successfully upgraded. The union consistently argued that the Collective Agreement process had been breached and must prevail.

Last week, Arbitrator Kaplan also heard about both our career and financial damage estimations. In the end, it was clear that many (more than 40) FCMs were improperly bypassed, but only a few had the seniority to hold a captain position at WestJet after the November 1, 2025, reduction bid takes effect. Arbitrator Kaplan based his compensation award and allocations on the range of financial impact experienced by bypassed pilots.

The Award

· Six FCMs are directed to receive upgrade training opportunities no later than March 15, 2026, at the bases they would be able to hold after the reduction bid takes effect on November 1, 2025. If successful, they will be upgraded to captain and paid the applicable captain rate.

· The Company must pay a total of $675,000, allocated to bypassed FCMs, with payments to be made within 45 days of the award.

· Arbitrator Kaplan remains seized to oversee implementation.

The award divides the $675,000 in compensation into categories.

The first category includes the first officers who were improperly bypassed and later awarded a captain upgrade and successfully qualified. These FCMs are awarded the highest damages. The argument was made that since they passed the later course, and there was no defensible reason why they were not awarded an earlier course, they would likely also have been successful in the earlier course. Their damages are based on the measurable loss of income from the date they were incorrectly bypassed.

The second category includes first officers who were improperly bypassed and have still not been awarded and successfully passed an upgrade course. Lesser damages are awarded to these FCMs since Arbitrator Kaplan identified that their chances of success were not certain.

The third category includes all first officers who were unfairly bypassed but likely would not have had sufficient seniority to hold a captain position if the company had complied with the Collective Agreement. They are awarded a payout for the rights violation. We consider this a win, since in an arbitration decision, it was very possible that only a written declaration of the violation without any damages would have been awarded. As when an overtime GDO duty is awarded improperly, only the senior member receives the bypass damages and not everyone who was bypassed.

The Sunwing integration and subsequent reduction bid complicated the case. Some pilots who should have been upgraded at Sunwing would have been downgraded at WestJet in November, making it unreasonable to continue to argue for upgrades that would not have survived the reduction bid. Only a handful of candidates who were bypassed would have retained captain status, and this has now been corrected. Any first officer who should have been awarded an upgrade at Sunwing, and who had the seniority to do so had management properly followed the Collective Agreement, will now have the opportunity to upgrade.

This award vindicates our position that major errors were made by Sunwing management in arbitrarily bypassing qualified FCMs. At the same time, the amounts awarded are less than we hoped. Arbitration awards rarely reflect the true damage to each individual. Judging damages is inherently subjective, and when any specific case is examined closely, counterarguments always appear. As Arbitrator Kaplan noted, evidence showing the Company went too low on the seniority list cannot prove that any one individual would certainly have passed their upgrade. A mountain of negatives does not prove a positive.

In the end, this award results in hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation to our members and corrects a major Collective Agreement violation. Like many arbitration outcomes, both sides walk away with their own frustrations, but the principle that the Collective Agreement and seniority must prevail has been reaffirmed. Overall, this is a significant win on a very long running and complex case.

This outcome reflects the tireless work of volunteers who reviewed evidence, built spreadsheets, and testified. Mark Taylor, Kevin Collins and Tamara Shaw donated countless hours, with significant contributions from Sebastian Kacpura, Willie Blake, Boris Stec, and Steve Jones. Barret Armann, Derek Butcher and two MECs supported the grievances. A special shoutout goes to the three of our lawyers who also worked hard for us on this. Daniel Anisfeld would have liked to see it to completion, but after ALPA declared a conflict, it was left to Nora Parker and Michael Wright to step in and get it over the finish line. Thanks so much everyone!

While this award is not perfect, it confirms that major errors were made, provides upgrades to several pilots, compensates dozens more, and reinforces that the Collective Agreement process must be respected. Well done everyone!

The award is attached to this email.

In solidarity,