Sun Country pilots approve new contract
Updated: 12:40 p.m. | Posted: 8:46 a.m.
After five years of negotiation and threats of a strike, Sun Country Airlines pilots approved a new contract Thursday that brings their wages more in line with those of other airlines.
The new five-year contract goes into effect Nov. 1. It will cover the airline's more than 250 pilots and includes what the company described as "substantial raises." Pilots had complained that their pay lagged far behind industry standards.
Create a More Connected Minnesota
MPR News is your trusted resource for the news you need. With your support, MPR News brings accessible, courageous journalism and authentic conversation to everyone - free of paywalls and barriers. Your gift makes a difference.
Sun Country pilot Darin Kluck said wages for all pilots will increase between 20 and 30 percent when the contract takes effect. They'll see an additional 21.5 percent increase in wages over the life of the contract.
"The company had been through a couple of bankruptcies and a change in ownership, so our wages had been frozen for a while," Kluck said. "We both came together and came to common ground and were able to avoid any sort of stoppage."
About 87 percent of the pilots voted to ratify the contract, with about 94 percent of eligible pilots casting a ballot.
Sun Country Airlines owner and chairman Marty Davis praised the agreement in a statement released Thursday.
"We are very pleased to have found common ground and agreement with our Sun Country Airline pilot team," Davis said. "We look forward to our continued collaborative work together as we strive to best serve our all-important Sun Country customers."
The road to the new contract was a bumpy one. The Mendota Heights-based airline and the pilots' union have been negotiating the contract since 2010. They've been working to resolve their differences through federal mediation since 2012.
Unhappy with the progress of negotiations, members of the pilots' union voted in February to authorize a strike if contract talks failed. In May, Davis sent union leaders a letter threatening to shut down the airline as a result of the pay dispute.
The union and company have already set up dates to start negotiating before the new contract expires in hopes of avoiding another drawn out contract negotiation, Kluck said.
Sun Country has been owned since 2011 by Cambria Holdings, a privately held company owned by the Davis family.