Belonging to the largest and most experienced pilot union in the world—ALPA—provides unique pilot-focused resources and a wealth of benefits and resources for our pilots individually and as a whole. These include:

• Scope protection. ALPA will seek to secure scope protection in a collective agreement that will aim to ensure that only Porter pilots fly under the Porter Brand (PACL & PAI together). This would stop the company from using or creating other carriers to shift flying away for cheaper labour or threatening lower wages and working conditions. A lack of scope protection has historically placed pilot groups at risk and pitted them against each other in a “race to the bottom." 
• Merger and acquisition protection. Porter is undergoing a massively ambitious expansion which, if it does not complete successfully, could result in Porter being acquired by another airline or holding group. If this happens, as the only major airline in Canada without union protection, all Porter Pilots could be seriously disadvantaged in any merger scenario. ALPA’s Merger Policy provides a fair and equitable process for negotiation of joint collective agreements and integration of seniority lists.
• Legal representation. ALPA’s experienced legal team supports you in the event of an operating incident of accident, unforeseen incidents on layover, and employment grievances.
• A collective agreement. Right now, the company can change our working rules at their discretion. We currently have no power to prevent this. A collective agreement, once voted on by the pilot group, is binding on the Company, would provide clear and firm working rules, and a grievance process which provides a pathway to restitution when work rules are not followed. Negotiating a strong contract takes time, dedication, and extensive knowledge. ALPA has a large professional staff of negotiators, financial and other analysts, lawyers, and pilot representatives that help ensure our future contracts are competitive across the industry.

Union dues represent the fee paid by members to support ALPA's activities on your behalf. ALPA dues are currently 1.85% of your gross income. More information will be sent out about your dues at a later date.

Approximately 50–75 percent of your dues will remain within your local pilot group, depending on the amount of dues you generate, to be used as the Porter MEC wishes (e.g., Pilot Unity Building events, family events, grievance meetings, swag, etc.).

The remainder goes to your representatives’ support system: the ALPA staff in Canada and the United States, which includes pilot assistance, retirement & benefits specialists, legal, and representation resources as well as aviation safety and security experts. In addition, ALPA provides a life insurance policy to all Canadian members that fly for participating airlines. Additional life insurance and other optional programs such as group auto/home insurance and critical illness insurance are available as well. ALPA also has a strong network of peer support representatives, and the Pilots for Pilots program aids members and their dependents who fall victim to natural disasters.

Please review the  ALPA Constitution & By-Laws  for income exempt from dues. The vast majority of ALPA workers are in fact unpaid volunteer pilots, like you, who serve as elected board members and committee representatives. Moreover, dues are also tax deductible.

Read more on dues from the Canada Revenue Agency

The Master Executive Council is the governing body of the pilot group which oversees the advocacy of their collective interest. It acts as the primary voice for the pilot group, representing their interests in negotiations, safety matters, and other issues. The MEC liaises with ALPA National (HQ), and is also responsible for the bargaining unit’s finances, its membership, and committees.

It is composed of the pilot representatives of all the Local Councils as well as the elected MEC officers: MEC chair, MEC vice chair, MEC secretary-treasurer. The MEC officers work at the direction of the MEC and ensure that work is carried out when the MEC is not in session.

Local Councils are groups of pilots usually defined by a specific geographic region, but other factors are considered as well. The idea behind this structure is to make sure that everyone’s needs are represented equally. The Local Executive Council leads the Council and is elected by the pilots. Each Local Executive Council consists of at least a Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary-Treasurer. The LECs are elected by the pilot group, and serve a predetermined term length. They can also be recalled by the pilots through ALPA’s democratic recall process. 

Local Councils are the backbone of pilot representation. While the MEC liaises between the company and the LECs, LECs work directly with the pilots in their local council. The LEC representatives are the primary contact for pilots for daily matters or when any issues arise.

ALPA is a democratic union organized with pilot members driving decision-making from the bottom up. It is a pilot-run, staff-supported union.

Here's how it works:

• Local councils are established at most pilot bases, and each local council elects a representative for each status (captain or first officer) or seniority block. As a multi-council MEC, the elected representatives from the local councils will also make up the Master Executive Council (MEC) for the Porter pilots.
• Each MEC is given primary responsibility for determining its relationship with management, making decisions about its contract and bargaining goals, and is given discretion over dispute resolution and contract administration. ALPA assigns professional staff to work with and advise local leaders, but elected pilot representatives make final decisions.
• At a national level, ALPA is governed by: the Board of Directors, the Executive Board, and the Executive Council. In Canada, the ALPA Constitution and By-Laws also provides for the Canada Board that is made up of three Canadian national officers and the MEC chairs of all Canadian pilot groups. This body’s jurisdiction focuses primarily on articulating all ALPA positions with Canadian institutions and to develop specific Canadian positions on issues of national interest to Canadian pilots.
• The Board of Directors (BOD) is the largest group, and it has the greatest authority. It consists of the local council representatives from every ALPA local council—approximately 225 pilots in total. It meets at least every two years and is responsible for setting the Association's course, modifying (when necessary) the governing documents, and electing national officers.
• The Executive Board is the second largest group, and its authority is second to the Board of Directors. The Executive Board is made up of the MEC chairs and custodians from each airline—so it presently has 43 members. It meets at least twice a year to make sure that the BOD's decisions are being implemented and to consider certain significant decisions reserved to the Executive Board in the ALPA Constitution & By-Laws and other policies.
• The smallest group, the Executive Council, is charged with overseeing the administration of the union, which includes such things as establishing and overseeing the budget and making day-to-day interpretations of ALPA’s governing rules. In addition, the Executive Council makes recommendations to the Executive Board or Board of Directors for final decision. The Executive Council currently has 16 members: four national officers, the ALPA Canada president, and 11 executive vice presidents elected from “election groups” described in the ALPA Constitution & By-Laws.
• The process for selecting executive vice presidents has changed many times over the years as the membership and needs of the Association have changed. Under the current structure, each airline with more than 4,000 members or $10 million in annual dues elects one executive vice president. Smaller U.S. airlines are placed in one of three election groups, and each of those groups chooses a single executive vice president.  All Canadian airlines with fewer than 4,000 members or $10 million in annual dues choose a single executive vice president.
• In the portion of the ALPA Constitution that describes executive vice president elections, the letters A, B, and C are used to designate the different groups from which executive vice presidents are chosen—A for the largest carriers, B for the other U.S. carriers, and C for the Canadian carriers who don’t meet the A criteria. The letters are just that—letters. They’re not grades or designations of importance.

As members of ALPA, Porter pilots have democratic control over their activities and decide on issues that are important to them, including negotiations and merger issues. Internal elections among the pilot group who are members of the union will be held to elect individuals to serve on the MEC and for individuals to represent you on a Negotiating Committee to negotiate a collective agreement.

The Negotiating Committee, assisted by experienced professional negotiators and lawyers from ALPA, will negotiate on your behalf based on your representatives' direction and with assistance and input from the Porter pilot members. This tentative collective agreement will be brought back to the members for ratification before it can be finalized.

Now that ALPA is certified as the trade union for Porter pilots, there are two immediate priorities:

1. The steps to put democratically elected permanent representatives in place, and
2. Conducting a membership drive and beginning to establish our volunteer structure

Until you elect our own leaders, ALPA will name interim pilot leaders to begin work on behalf of our pilot group, also known as the Porter Master Executive Council (MEC). Every pilot group in ALPA is governed by pilot representatives who make up our MEC, following ALPA’s Constitution & By-Laws.

ALPA will also establish local councils (LECs) at select pilot bases, with interim LEC pilot leaders. After we establish solid membership, each local council elects a representative for each status (Captain or First Officer) or seniority block. In pilot groups such as Porter’s with multiple LECs, the elected representatives make up the MEC. The elected representatives elect MEC officers.

The MEC will establish committees in its first few months of operation. These committees are likely to include Safety, Retirement and Insurance, Negotiations, and others. ALPA professional experts in each area will meet with the committees soon after their formation to outline resources available, provide training, and outline the committee's goals and work schedule.

The interim local council representatives will get things started, but as soon as a strong majority of pilots have become members, an election process will begin so that we can choose our own representatives. Only active members will be eligible to vote in this election. That process will start with a nominating meeting. It's critical for all pilots to submit membership applications as soon as possible after certification to attend local council meetings and vote to elect representatives.

Under Section 37 of the CLC, a trade union, including all of its union representatives, is bound to provide a duty of fair representation to all employees it represents. Oversight of this duty is provided by the CIRB that hears cases involving the duty of fair representation.

Your ALPA Porter representatives will have the ability to legally and collectively represent the Porter pilot group as a whole. In addition to the protections that association members have contained within the Canada Labour Code, your representatives are also bound to the ALPA Code of Ethics and Constitution and By-Laws. As per the ALPA Constitution, representatives can be recalled by the membership.

Issued to all ALPA members, the “orange card” contains contact information for the ALPA Worldwide Accident/Incident Hotline, which connects members to immediate support and professional assistance. This critical service is one of the fundamental reasons for ALPA's existence. If you are involved in an aircraft accident or incident, you are entitled to and will receive extensive professional legal and technical representation.

The hotline is staffed 24/7/365 by knowledgeable experts who have extensive experience in aircraft operations. They will provide you with guidance on how to proceed and, if necessary, immediately dispatch a team of legal and technical experts to assist you. An ALPA accident investigator will be assigned to the TSB investigation on your behalf. Companies often say they will look after you in the event of an accident, but the end result can be quite different. ALPA is completely committed to supporting your needs, and the protection it offers continues—even in the unfortunate event of your death, protection will be extended to your estate. 

No one can make you join. However, you will be required to pay dues in accordance with the Rand Formula, which was established in 1946 by Justice Ivan Rand of the Supreme Court of Canada.

If you choose not to become a member, you will not receive many of the benefits that members receive. In addition, a nonmember will not be able to vote on matters affecting the union. Under Canadian labour law, union dues are mandatory regardless of the worker's union status to ensure that no employee will opt out of the union simply to avoid dues, but still reap the benefits of the union's accomplishments, such as ensuring higher wages, better job security, or other benefits and protections.

If you were previously a member of ALPA and have unpaid financial obligations from your time in ALPA, the ALPA Constitution requires applicants to pay, or make arrangements to satisfy, past financial obligations to ALPA before they can be accepted into membership. Arrangement plans are available for past obligations.

Under current law the affected companies are under no legal obligation to discuss the impact of a merger/acquisition with you or any of the other pilots in your airline prior to any decisions being made. Your seniority may not be protected and you could end up being severely disadvantaged. However, if you are represented by a certified union, under the Canada Labour Code, your company will have an obligation to confer with your union. This obligation is often included in the collective agreement between your union and the employer.

Now imagine that your company were taken over by another larger airline. How do you think things would work out if the new company decided that certain positions were now considered redundant and wanted to trim the workforce to gain cost-savings? Furthermore, what would happen if the other company’s employees were unionized and your company’s were not? Obviously, the pilots with union representation would have a voice to be heard during the merger process in both a prospective and a reactive sense. This would represent a significant advantage over employees with no union representation.

No. Members' dues are not used for political donations in Canada or the United States. How ALPA spends its funds is determined by the members and outlined in its Constitution and By-Laws. When you become a member of ALPA, you become a decision maker as to how ALPA spends its money.