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The Canadian Helicopters Shaft


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You are correct, the chances of enforcement are low, but look at it from our low-timers point of view. He probably has no job, he has very little money, and he has a professionally written LEGAL threat letter from a huge corporation in front of him. How would you feel?

 

The Corporation uses the tactics of Legal Threats and then can drag things out for ages....creating a financial hardship on our low-timers.

What a pathetic bunch, it''s sad that they go through their business lives without morals or ethics.

I know a guy who fought them and WON.

 

KEEP FIGHTING!

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Its a pretty poor tactic common among operators who have trouble retaining staff.

 

Perhaps treating people fairly never crossed their minds? Keep ''em happy, they''ll stick around!

 

To lay them off and go after them???? I''m having a hard time believing they would stoop that low. Perhaps there are "other" circumstances?

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Changing the company culture in that outfit seems to be a daunting task, to say the least.

 

Having said that, CHC/E/I/L gave me my IFR, ATPL/H, and some medium and heavy helicopter endorsements, and never once asked me to sign diddly. Nor did they try and wiggle money or time out of me when I left, as I''ve heard from others.

 

Coolhand, your friend was not given the course because he was a nice guy, he was given it because they needed him to have it - for insurance, customer, or whatever reason. I can''t believe they''re still playing this bullshit game. A higher-time guy would tell them to get stuffed, but as 407 said, it''s a tough situation for a low-timer.

 

Shame on them.

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Thanks for the response guys. I guess if a company treats it''s employee''s well, they would not have a turn-over problem. But to scare guys into staying, and waiting by the phone to get a call to come back to work is a little much. After 9 months he decided to find work elsewhere. This is when he got the letter.

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In the spring of 1996 a buddy of mine and I were the last two pilots to receive the full 76 hour mountain and advanced ops course in Penticton. I too had to sign “the contract” before training began. At that time, it was for a four year term, totaling about $39,000 with ¼ reduction for each year of service. The way I looked at it, it guaranteed me work for the four years. I thought it was a win-win situation. The low pay was supposed to offset the training costs.

 

The first year a new pilot says “I can’t believe they are paying me to do this” after a season or two it’s more like “they can’t pay me enough to do this”. The perspective changes as your experience grows and options open up.

 

My job with Canadian Helicopters Limited, Western Division (as it was known at the time) gave me more wonderful experiences than I had ever imagined. Some bases would start you out slowly, as others would throw you right into the ugliest jobs right away. I looked around me and started to realize that many (all) of the former recent graduates of the ops course were out making more cash, working a better schedule with great companies like Alpine, Helifor, CHC Intl, etc. That was when I viewed the contract as something to endure. The pay was bad; I wasn’t the squeaky wheel so time just went on until the day of my four year anniversary. Guess what, four years plus a day and the pay didn’t go up, so what was there to look forward to?

 

The contract I signed was not a legal document from a lawfirm, just a simple letter on CHL stationary stating the terms in plain english. Those contracts aren’t worth the paper they are printed on, it’s a moral issue. I honored the contract because Al Eustis was my boss when I signed it and I didn’t want to disappoint him. While I was in training, upper management changed hands and Al was moved into a non-operational position. That was the turning point for a lot of personnel, in my opinion. Good guys like 407Driver started dropping from the payroll and found themselves doing the unthinkable and flying something that wasn’t orange under all those paintjobs. Guess what, they became happy and likely more productive people.

 

Myself, I stuck it out in a base where we flew our can off, ignored calls from Edmonton and the base manager was the filter between us and the operations department. Life was pretty good until I had my fill of base politics and bad coastal weather. An IFR ticket went onto my license one winter and I was then counting the months until my contract was up. A few years down the road, a few job changes later, I am now an IFR offshore captain on a S61N with CHC doing what I had always thought would be my retirement job. Great management in YVR, great schedule, recent pay raise, lots of traveling. I tell you it beats Wabasca, AB in January or August.

 

One point is, CHC has put as much training money into me as CHW did and there were no strings attached. No paper hanging over my head. That is something that builds loyalty, not a piece of paper that implies that I am someone’s slave for the contract term. In 1997, four new pilots had been given the mini ops course in Penticton, they signed the contract and wound up all sharing an apartment in Edmonton because they couldn't afford to live alone on the $900 per month and $20 a flight hour they were paid. That's sickening.

 

Here in Venezuela, I am speaking to a fixed wing pilot that tells me that such a contract is illegal here. The local labor laws state that the employer must adequately train an employee for their job. What a concept.

 

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Also coolhand (aka C.H.......hmmm),

A lawyer''s letter is definitely not enforceable. Most civil court orders are not even enforceable.... not until the plaintiff applies for and obtains an additional "enforcement order" to go with it. I''ve seen several law firm letters ordering that I do certain things through my gov''t work. You know where those letters go? Often lawyers will sell their client a "worth a try" letter hoping for a quick easy payment from the letter''s recipient. I wouldn''t go down that easy for them. My advice to your friend would be to start a file today documenting every date and time of every communication with anyone related to this and include all documentation with a notation on when/ how/ who from it was rec''d. Keep it all in chronological order. Once that''s underway, have a letter sent back to CHL explaining the entire situaion as clearly as possible and seek clarification or even reconsideration. If this is done in a professional manner I expect that they will understand that cost recovery under the status quo may be more resource depleting than it would to re-hire this willing pilot (in some capacity). I''m sure something can be worked out.

 

Good luck!

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I see posts here referring to Canadian and CHC in the same light. They might have the same paint jobs and both sport the “speedchicken” but they are two totally different companies with very different management structures. Anyone referring to “Canadian” as CHC clearly doesn’t know the operation.

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#### said "Canadian has been known as the training company for years."  and then ". . . but when your company has such a large revolving door, you need to at least make an attempt to stem the flow."

 

And he''s correct that this is happening. What I find utterly unbelievable about this whole situation, is that we have a company that:

 

- Is stable, or as stable as one can reasonable expect in this industry.

- Is safe. Their maintenance is as good as any, or at least it was when I was there.

- Has a pension plan.

- Has an IFR division, with the ability to ''get ahead''

- Has ties with CHC, and all its mobility.

- Has the possibility of getting on large equipment, if that''s important to you.

- Has urban contracts, for those who eventually want to stay home.

 

Tell me, why would anyone want to leave? This place should be the holy grail of the Canadian helicopter industry, not a sinking ship from which the rats wish flee. I don''t get it.

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