Private Equity Ownership Always Has an Exit Plan

This video is worth watching as part of the broader history of how WestJet arrived where it is today.

It was produced in 2021, shortly after airport workers in Calgary and Vancouver joined Unifor. At that point, YYC and YVR workers had made the decision to unionize in response to growing uncertainty across the airline following the sale of WestJet to private equity firm Onex.

That sale marked a fundamental shift in how the airline would be run. Private equity ownership is built around creating efficiencies, reducing costs, restructuring operations, and ultimately increasing profitability ahead of a future sale or public offering. Across the airline industry and beyond, that model almost always includes job cuts, contracting out, and outsourcing.

We have now seen that play out in real time.

Over the past several years there have been repeated rounds of restructuring and job loss across the system. Entire functions have been outsourced. Work has been shifted. Departments have been reduced or reorganized. Most recently, additional cuts occurred at Campus within TAPS groups just this past week. Similar pressures have been felt at the Contact Centre and across operational divisions.

At each stage, internal employee groups such as the AEA, TAPS and CCEA reassured workers that jobs were safe and that there was no need for a union. Workers were told that relationships and goodwill would be enough. They were encouraged to trust that the company would protect them.

But these groups do not have legal authority under federal labour law. They cannot enforce job protection language. They cannot stop outsourcing. They cannot file grievances. They cannot take the employer to arbitration. And they cannot compel the company to reverse decisions once they are made.

What we are seeing now reflects those structural limits.

The same pressures are now being felt at YEG and at Campus. There is ongoing concern that smaller bases like YEG could eventually be vulnerable to outsourcing models similar to what has already occurred elsewhere in the industry. Companies like AGI already perform ramp work and previously handled above-wing work for Swoop while operating as ATS. That is not speculation. It is established industry practice.

None of this is shared to create fear. It is shared to provide honest context.

These are real and documented developments across WestJet. They highlight the difference between informal employee groups that rely on goodwill and a certified union that has enforceable legal rights under the Canada Labour Code.

History shows that once work is outsourced or jobs are eliminated, there is little recourse without enforceable language and bargaining power in place. That is the core lesson many WestJet workers across the system have already drawn and why thousands chose to secure a formal seat at the table.

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