The following report is made so all members can know and understand how their dues are spent and if any improvements could be made.
Every year, two audits must be conducted on the Component’s financial books. One audit is done by professional auditors, who ensure accounting procedures are properly followed. For this period, chartered accountants Resnick Partnership LLP were the auditors (Please see attached Independent Auditors Report).
The other audit is done by Component Trustees. Their role is to make sure the Secretary-Treasurer is complying with the rules and responsibilities set out by the CUPE Constitution, the Airline Division Bylaws and the Component Bylaws. To be more specific, the most important duty of any Secretary-Treasurer is to ensure all income owed to the Local(s) or Component is collected and properly spent.
This means ensuring that:
∙ Funds are spent the way the members intended.
∙ Financial mismanagement can be detected and reported.
Everyone who is an Air Canada Mainline and Air Canada Rouge CUPE member pays union dues without 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 2018, the year we are auditing, $5,682,497 million was collected in union dues. The Component Finance Administrator, divides these funds into three parts. Each local with more than 2,000 members receives $8.00 for every member plus $600.00 base amount every month. For the smaller locals, those with less than 2000 members, receive $8.00 for every member plus $3,250.00 base amount every month. The Component shall also remit an additional $3,000 a month for locals with less than 500 members, as per the Component Bylaws: Section (8.4.1).
According to an ACCEX meeting held in June 2018, a motion was unanimously carried to augment locals in the following manner. The motion states, “The Air Canada Component shall remit the monthly budget for each Local $3,250.00 base amount plus $8 per dues paying member. The Air Canada Component shall remit an additional monthly budget for each Local with less than 1,000 dues paying members $3,000.00 a month.” It is our understanding that this motion is to be applied only for the July 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019, fiscal year.
CUPE National receives $18.09 from every member and the remainder stays at the Component. To illustrate this: if $60.00 is deducted in union dues from a member, $8.00 would go to their local, $18.09625 would go to CUPE National, and the remainder, approximately $33.91, stays at Component.
The Component also sends $0.10 cents for every member to the Airline Division of CUPE.
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 are spent by the guiding rules of the CUPE Constitution, the Component Bylaws, Component Expense Policy and by you, the membership.
Like our previous report, we are five years behind in the Component Trustee audits largely due to the pandemic restrictions and the high turnover of Component Secretary-Treasurers and Trustees, but best efforts are being made to be up to date.
We met June 10 to June 13, 2024, to complete this audit.
To avoid confusion and provide greater clarity, we will state names when needed. For the year we are auditing, the work of the former Component Secretary-Treasurer, Wesley Lesosky, will be reviewed.
During this fiscal year, the accounting software had upgraded to a newer version of Newviews. This is an improvement to the accuracy of the books and financial reports.
We have made some recommendations which we hope ACCEX (Air Canada Component Executive) will consider and adopt, but we recognize that many practices have changed and improved since 2018.
Both Air Canada Mainline and Air Canada Rouge members will receive this report and we hope that all members will take some time to read it. We are available to answer any questions regarding this report at any ACCEX or local meeting, if invited as Component Trustees.
Regards,
Ana Selke Benjamin Paneghel Marc Roumy
ana@accomponent.ca benjamin@acccomponent.ca marc@accomponent.ca
Click HERE to view the Trustees’ Report.
Click HERE to view the Secretary-Treasurer’s Response.