Audit period:
July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2013
Dear Members,
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 & Company were the auditors.
The other audit is done by Component Trustees. The role of Component Trustees is to make sure the Component 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 that the Local(s) or Component’s funds are properly spent.
This means ensuring that:
∙ No one steals any of the local(s) 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, $4.5 million was collected in Union dues. The Component Accountant divides these funds into three parts. Each Local with more than 2,000 members (Toronto) receives $6.00 from every member plus $600.00 every month. For the smaller Locals (Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver) the monthly lump sum is $3,250.00 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, $6.00 would go to their Local, $18.09 would go to CUPE National, and the remainder, approximately $35.00, would remain at the Component.
Our role as Component 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 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 (Component Trustees – Helen Bond, Wesley Lesosky, and Marc Roumy) met to conduct our audit from April 22 to May 1, 2015, June 29 and 30, 2015, September 9 to 11, 2015 and from April 11 to 14, 2016. We also had a conference call on May 26, 2015, as well as a meeting on April 13, 2016 with regards to the length of the audit. The meetings were held with CUPE National Assistant Director – Andy Mele, CUPE National Representative – Helen Gibb-Gavel, CUPE National Staff Representative – Terri Nolan, Component President – Michel Cournoyer, and Executive Assistant to the Component President – Merilee Pirri. The Component Secretary-Treasurer provided to us his response to our Trustee Report on July 21, 2016.
We noticed that some committees were over budget and we investigated as to the reasons why, some committees went over due to unforeseen circumstances, such as the Health & Safety Committee. During this audit year, there were Component and Local elections, a referendum vote, as well as rouge negotiations. We reviewed the legal costs and ramifications regarding an internal legal dispute, and multiple pay disputes.
We have made some recommendations which we hope the Air Canada Component Executive (ACCEX) will consider and adopt. All Air Canada and rouge CUPE 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 audit report at any ACCEX or Local meeting, if invited as Component Trustees. We can also be reached by email at trustees@accomponet.ca.
Please click on the links below to review the reports:
1. Component Trustees’ Report & Recommendations
- Attachment: Resnick & Company – Independent Auditor’s Report
- Attachment: CUPE National Salary List
2. Component Secretary-Treasurer’s Response
Regards,
Component Trustees