As the year ends, we want to wish you a very happy new year! We have appreciated meeting many of you across the country over the last year. Getting out of the office and talking with you connects us to worker experiences and helps us better represent our members. We’ll continue meeting crews in airports nationwide in the new year.
We’ve made progress on important issues:
- Developing and presenting a critical incident and stress management program (CISM) for union volunteers trained in crisis intervention. It’s in final review.
- Building and submitting suggestions to the bargaining team.
- Collaborating with management to establish a psychological health and safety program. Having completed an initial high-level committee assessment of mental health hazards in the workplace, we are now moving to a phase of confirming facts and outstanding questions.
- Getting certified to offer LivingWorks ASIST suicide intervention workshops and holding our first workshop in Ottawa on December 10-11. Dates for sessions available to the general membership will be made available in the New Year.
- For the second consecutive year, your local joint Health and Safety Committees will have inspected every aircraft in the fleet and all areas of YUL/YYZ/YYC/YVR airports that are used by crews by year-end. This represents significant effort and coordination at the joint committees given the complex schedule of every FIN.
- Meeting over 1000 cabin crew through new hire sessions, airport outreach initiatives as well as joint committee safety campaigns.
We’ve fielded so many interesting questions these past few weeks while meeting crews. Two of them are especially important:
What happens to safety during bargaining?
Safety work does not stop during a period of bargaining. Your representatives and joint committees (management & union) continue to do their work as usual. We have developed a plan to ensure that we maintain good communication with union executives as well as management during the busy bargaining period.
In line with this, you can expect us to keep our discussions with you focused on safety as we continue to meet crews in airports.
Who are we?
Put simply, we’re cabin crew just like you! But we also have many years of experience and education in occupational health and safety as well as union work.
Here’s a little bit more info:
Jordan Bray-Stone
Status: FA
Years at AC Mainline: 20
Base: YUL
Nicola Schnell (Nicky)
Status: SD
Years at Air Canada ZIP (low cost): 2
Years at AC Mainline: 20
Base: YYC
Type of position within the Union:
Appointed Union Representative (Chosen by the Air Canada Component President)
Role:
At Air Canada Mainline In-Flight, Jordan Co-Chairs the system-wide joint union-management OHS Committee called the Policy Committee. Nicky is a member of the YYC joint Workplace Health and Safety Committee.
But a large part of our work involves supporting your front-line OH&S union reps through our roles chairing the Air Canada Component of CUPE OHS Committee. Jordan also chairs the Airline Division of CUPE OHS Committee, linking us to our colleagues at Air Transat, WestJet, Sunwing, Flair Airlines, PAL Airlines, Calm Air, Canadian North, Pascan Aviation and Pivot Airlines.
OH&S and Union Experience:
– Jordan: 17 years OHS (including full and part-time) + 3 years YUL local VP
– Nicky: 5 years OHS + 2 years mobilization/WestJet drive
OH&S Education:
University of Calgary
- Occupational Health & Safety Fundamentals (200 hour)
- Occupational Health & Safety Advanced (200 hour)
- Occupational Health & Safety Diploma (400 hour) (in-progress – one course to go!)
- Change Management (in-progress – two courses to go!)
Pacific Coast University for Workplace Health Sciences
- Return to Work & Disability Management
- Mental Health in the Workplace
Embry-Riddle University
- Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS)
LivingWorks Education
- ASIST Suicide First Aid Workshop
- ASIST Trainer Certification
International Critical Incident and Stress Foundation
- Individual and group crisis intervention
- Psychological First Aid
Mental Health Commission of Canada
- Mental Health First Aid
Women and Gender Equality Canada
- Gender-based Analysis Plus certification
In Solidarity,
Your Component Occupational Health and Safety Committee