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. (Please see attached Independent Auditors Report)
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:
∙ Funds are spent the way the members intended.
∙ Financial mismanagement can be detected and reported.
Everyone who is an Air Canada/Rouge 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 2015, the year we are auditing, $4,535,871 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).
CUPE National receives $18.09625 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. Please note there was a ratified referendum in the late summer of 2014, that took effect in the fall to increase the per member monthly budget amount from $6.00 to $8.00, as well there was an additional budget added for bases with less than 500 members who would receive $3,000.00.
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 and by you, 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.
The previous Component Trustees, Yvette Nakamoto, Pam Sarkissian and Marc Roumy (current Trustee) began working on completing the second portion of the 2014-2015 fiscal year on January 20th-23rd and the 27th, 2020. This entailed auditing the period of February 1st, 2015, to June 30th, 2015. The audit was not completed due to the resignation of Component Trustee, Pam Sarkissian. The Trustee audits were already late at that point. We are now 6 years behind in the Component Trustee audits largely due to the pandemic and restrictions. Another Trustee, Yvette Nakamoto, had also resigned. We will provide more detail on the impact of the late completion of Component Trustee audits in our Report.
We would like to thank Pam and Yvette for their work and effort as Trustees.
We met February 7th to the 11th, 2022 to complete this audit.
Due to the lateness of the audits, and a high turn over of union officers, and in order to avoid confusion and provide greater clarity, we will state names when needed.
In the year we are auditing, we are reviewing the work of the former Component Secretary-Treasurer, Antonius Lam.
We noticed some committees had gone over budget, and this was due to Bargaining. As an example, the Mobilization committee went over budget by almost 400%. Approximately, $46,000 was spent on pins, pens and lanyards for mobilizing the membership.
We have made some recommendations which we hope ACCEX (Air Canada Component of CUPE Executive) will consider and adopt.
We have made some recommendations, but we recognize that many practices have changed and improved since 2015. For example, since March 2018, the new bookkeeping company, Rankin Spence Group, began using QuickBooks, which is far superior and more user-friendly than the accounting system used in 2015, called NewViews.
Both 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 report at any ACCEX or local meeting, if invited as Component Trustees.
Regards,
Choying Dolkar Benjamin Paneghel Marc Roumy
jasmine@accomponent.ca benjamin@acccomponent.ca marc@accomponent.ca
Air Canada Component Trustees
Click HERE to view the Trustees’ Report.
Click HERE to view the Secretary-Treasurer’s Response.