Dear Members,
Ever year, two audits must be conducted on the Component’s financial books. (We are behind in our audits, and due to last years negotiations, we were unable to catch up and be up-to-date.) One audit is done by professional auditors, who ensure accounting procedures are properly followed. For this period, chartered accountants Finucci Watters did the audit and their report will follow this introduction letter.
The other audit is done by Component Trustees. The role of Component Trustees is to make sure the Component Secretary-Treasurer is complying to the rules and responsibilities set out by the CUPE Constitution, the Airline Division by-laws and the Component by-laws. To be more specific, the most important duty of any Secretary-Treasurer is to ensure all income owed to the local or component is collected and that the local or component’s funds are properly spent.
This means ensuring that:
∙ No one steals any of the local or component’s money.
∙ Funds are spent the way the members intended.
Everyone who is an Air Canada CUPE member pays union dues. There are no exceptions.
Air Canada deducts our union dues (1.5% of gross income) every month from our pay, and hands over the funds to the component. In the year we are auditing, over $4 million was collected in union dues. The component accountant divides these funds into three parts. Each local with more than 2,000 members receives $6 from every member plus $600 every month. For the smaller locals (Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver) the monthly lump sum is $3,250. CUPE National receives $18.09 from every member and the remainder stays at the Component. To illustrate this: if $60 is deducted in union dues from a member, $6 would go to their local, $18,09 would go to CUPE National, and the remainder, approximately $35, would remain at the Component.
Our role as Trustees is to make sure that each local and CUPE National gets their portion of funds, and the dues used by the Component, is spent by the guiding rules of the CUPE Constitution, the by-laws and by the will of the membership.
This report is made so all members can know and understand if their dues are properly spent and if any improvements are needed.
We met from February 13-17, 21st, 23rd , March 2nd, April 16th and May 31st of 2012. We noticed some committees were over budget and we investigated on the reasons why. In this period we are auditing, our component had to contend with lay-offs in Vancouver, two base closures, negotiations, component and local elections. Consulting and legal fees have increased considerably due to these events.
We have made some recommendations which we hope the component officers and the local presidents will consider and adopt. We hope all Air Canada CUPE members will receive this report. And, we encourage all local Presidents to invite us to their next local meeting, so we can present our report directly to the members and answer any of their questions. Thank you.
Yours truly,
| Evelyn Bell-Bedard | Sal Occhiuzzi | Marc Roumy |
Component Trustees
Click here to view the Trustee’s Report
Click here to view the Secretary-Treasurer’s Response