The Union has filed a policy grievance about Air Canada’s improper designation of extension pairings (click HERE to view). Although the Collective Agreement, including Article L60.04.05, requires Air Canada to designate each pairing based on the longest leg within that pairing, Air Canada has recently started mixing extension pairing rules within a single pairing.
For example, if the longest flight leg within a pairing falls under LOU 22A, the entire pairing should be designated as an LOU 22A pairing. Therefore, all rules under LOU 22A should apply to all flight legs within that pairing (crew rest, crew complement, duty period limitations, etc.).
For the May 2021 block month, however, the Union discovered that ICN pairings in YVR were built with different rules on each of the flight legs instead of applying the LOU 18 rules (the longest leg within that pairing) on the entire pairing. For example, pairings involving flight 28 (ICN-YYZ, L18) were combined with flights ac25 (YVR-ICN) and ac119/127 (YYZ-YVR) and the crew complement on flights ac25 and ac119/127 was based on the lower B5 crew complement instead of the required LOU 18 crew complement.
In this grievance, the Union is seeking to require Air Canada to comply with its obligations regarding the creation and designation of pairings.
In Solidarity,
Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE