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Canadian Helicopters Medics Unionize


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To whom it may concern: From the CAW website www.caw.ca

 

Emergency Medical Flight Paramedics Join CAW

 

June 03, 2004, 11:40 a.m. EST

 

The Canada Industrial Relations Board has certified the CAW as the bargaining agent for 95 emergency medical flight paramedics working for Canadian Helicopter Ltd. CHL is contracted by the Ontario Ministry of Health to provide helicopters and necessary personnel to Ontario’s emergency health care system.

The CHL flight paramedics work from seven bases; Toronto, Sudbury, London, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Moosonee and Kenora. Their primary role is to pick up patients on scene, provide life saving medical care and transport them to hospitals - and also to transfer patients between facilities in emergency situations.

 

The flight paramedics join some 300 CAW paramedics in the union’s growing health care sector.

 

 

From what I hear, the pilots are taking a "sit back and watch" attitude and are going to wait for the medics before they say: "Me too!"

 

Primary care medics east of Toronto working with OPSEU or CUPE are now being paid starting wages of $33 per hours plus benefits...

 

S/M

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Let's see

 

$33/hr. x 160 hours/mo. = $5280/mo. x 12 months = $63360/annum

 

Plus bennies

 

Not bad in my books

 

The real one to watch is what the pilots do. Only a fool would believe most operators aren't getting just a little worried that at some point a group of pilots will successfully unionize IN Canada.

 

Be interesting to see what the average Canadian operator might do the day the shoe winds up on the other foot.

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Just an FYI:

 

Primary care medics are equivalent in CHL EMS's eyes to Copilots and the Advanced Care medics to Captains. The Critcal care medics in the company now make more than just about all the Captains (except the holdovers from Toronto Helicopters). So, the ACPs in Durham county are making $40 per hr ($80K per year TO START) plus bennies....this is v. good pay.

 

I know there are more than just a few Captains out there a little p1$$ed at that!!

 

S/M

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howdy boys,

 

One sure thing is that every FO is being taken advantage of by CHL EMS. They have all the same requirements except hours on type. They have to pass a Captain's PPC, they are ATPL rated and instrument rated. Most FO's do not fit into the 500 hour minimum requirement bracket - many cross over with thousands of hours.

 

The aircraft can complete the requirements of the contract, with a very small fine from the customer, with 1 medic or even with 0 medics. The aircraft can NOT complete the requirements of the contract with 1 pilot - the aircraft is grounded. The fine from the customer is very significant per shift at a fee of well over $5000!!

 

The pay scales for medics have 7 levels - for captains have 10 levels and for FO's have 14 levels. The length of time to go from the bottom to the top of your payscale is more than twice as long for an FO as it is for a medic and longer for a captain than for a medic.

 

The starting hourly rate for an FO is $13.07. :down:

The starting hourly rate for a Captain is $28.52.

The starting hourly rate for an advanced care medic is $26.46.

The starting hourly rate for a critical care medic is $30.82.

 

Another issue CHL EMS must amend is the frequent use of foreigners who will work for lower salaries to help with getting citizenship and experience flying in Canada. CHL EMS claims they can not fill the ranks with pilots meeting the requirements in Canada. That is because not many VFR drivers earning $60,000+ annually are willing to take the huge pay cut to cross over.

 

Will the pilots unionize? What do you think?

 

JAFO

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JAFO: YOU GUYS HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING FOR THE LAST COUPLE OF YEARS AND WERE ASKED IF YOU WOULD PREFER UNION OR AN ASSOCIATION.

 

EVERYBODY VOTED ASSOCIATION.

 

HELICOPTER ENGINEER'S AND PILOT ASSOCIATION, CANADA WAS FORMED AT NO COST TO ANYBODY, EXCEPT ME.

 

VERY FEW PEOPLE JOINED.

 

HOW THE H?LL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GOING TO ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING IF YOU DON'T TAKE PART?????

 

THE PRESIDENT OF CHL HAS BEEN ASKED TO TAKE PART IN THIS DISCUSSION, BUT HAS REFUSED, SO FAR. I GUESS HE WOULD PREFER DEALING WITH THE FTQ, WHO ARE THE MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS.

 

I HOPE THIS WAS LOUD ENOUGH FOR EVERYBODY.

 

Sh?t or get of the pot, cry all you want, you have nobody to blame but yourselves.

 

Think about it, Don

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That's it, I've had enough of reading obnoxious and offensive posts from Blackmac. Who in his right mind would ever consider signing up to be a member of HEPAC with such a person at its helm? You have to be kidding. And for $200 as well? No wonder very few people seem to be interested…

 

Sorry to take this topic off on a tangent and for being so negative - I know that this forum is all supposed to be about sharing ideas and discussing opinions in a decent manner. However, Blackmac just seems to always come in with aggressive and/or one-sided posts. If you hope to promote HEPAC, you are so far off the beaten track Don. Maybe you should reconsider your commitment…

 

I don’t care to discuss whether Canadian pilots and engineers need an association, that’s been discussed at great length before. To each his/her own. But one thing is for sure, for HEPAC to ever get off the ground and truly represent all of us would require someone with a lot more diplomacy and tact.

 

PIC

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Pilot in Command, of what.

 

Try and speak for yourself, because you certainly do not understand the due process of an association or did they have that in kindergarten.

Try and read the bylaws and try to understand what an association is all about or are you above that, with your condecending and know it all attitude.

 

Cheers and you can apologize any time, because the association would belong to you if you took part.

 

Something else to consider by you and anybody else in this industry, I will not kiss a?s for anybody.

 

Exactly what is happening now was predicted over two years ago by my self and the person who made this post, or is your memory that selective.

 

This prior post I made was not negative, just relating the facts that had been predicted.

 

The association was set up for your benefit, I gain nothing from it other than the fact that maybe you guys will start looking after one another instead of griping about the same old.

 

As for me running the show, well the only thing I can say is this, I started this with two other directors and NO member has come forward to say he would like to be Pres.

 

PIC, become a member and you can apply for my job, in fact any member can have it. I will gladly give it up and let you deal with all the nice people on this site.

 

A Newfoundlander said to me that most of the people on this site would rather sit around and ***** and do nothing, just like Newf's.

 

You seem to have the answer to the problem, so put up or shut up.

 

Cheers, Don

 

PS: I was paying over $50.00/month in union dues in the government, for nothing.

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