Lisa Raymond, Author at AC Component

Secretary-Treasurer’s Report – June 2020

Lisa Raymond on July 3, 2020

Since my last financial update to the membership a lot has changed in our work and personal lives, and in turn the Union will also need to adjust to our current reality. The Component over the past years has come to expect membership growth year-over-year which in turn has fueled revenue growth. As we enter the months ahead, we will need to be more financially prudent. The good news is that over the years the Union has set aside funds for such a scenario which allowed us to offer a two-month dues reduction and will assist us to weather the reduced dues revenue over the next few months.

Component Trustees and Audits
Our external auditors completed their audits on the 2016, 2017, and 2018 Year Ends earlier this year. The Financial Statements were presented to ACCEX by our auditors who joined us at our first Virtual ACCEX Meeting in May. They were subsequently unanimously approved.

The external auditors have also begun work on auditing our 2019 year-end last week and hope to have it completed by the end of July. I feel it is important to have the auditors complete their audit in a timely manner so that any accounting errors can be fixed for the go-forward.

The Component Trustees were on-site in late January to complete their 2015 audit. Unfortunately, they were unable to complete their audit. A new trustee was also acclaimed during this year’s election; however, we were unable to get them trained before the effect of COVID-19 shutdown the economy.

Union Dues
In May 2020, the membership passed a referendum reducing Union Dues to 0.5% of gross earnings for the April 2020 and May 2020 block months. The Component continued to remit per capita to CUPE National and provide full budgets to the Locals during that time. Union dues have returned to 1.5% of gross earnings for the June 2020 block month.

2020-21 Fiscal Budget
Instead of passing a traditional 1-year budget, we decided to pass a 6-month budget for the first half of the year. We will pass a second budget for the second half of the year later, once we have a better understanding of our longer-term membership numbers. In the budgeting process, I tasked each Committee Chair to go through a zero-based budgeting process to help eliminate unnecessary cost and truly justify every expense. At our ACCEX meeting last week, we passed this budget, which saw cuts in every area of our spending except for the Dues we pay to CUPE National, as well as the Local Budgets as these are fixed per-capita costs. The budget does have us dipping into $200,000 of our cash reserves with most of these funds allocated to our Grievance Committee and Health & Safety Committee’s legal costs.

Highest Earner Top-Up
Please see the table below for the highest earner in the bargaining unit for the past six months:

Statement of Operations – July 1 2019 to March 31 2020
Please note that this represents the first three quarters of the last fiscal year and doesn’t yet show the effects of COVID-19 or the two-month dues reduction which will eliminate the surplus shown below.

In conclusion, our members can rest assured we will continue to provide careful oversight on costs and spending. I would especially like to thank our committee members and staff for their ongoing support as we enter this challenging new fiscal year which will require everyone to adapt, and for us to continue to seek the most effective ways of serving you, our members.

In Solidarity,

Alex Habib
Secretary-Treasurer, Air Canada Component of CUPE

Paper Mailings

Lisa Raymond on June 30, 2020

In 2018, changes were made to the Air Canada Component Bylaws allowing members to opt-out of receiving physical mailings during elections and to receive communication electronically, solely via email.

Turning to electronic communication allows those with difficulty accessing mailboxes to receive their information in a secure and timely manner. This option also represents environmental and cost saving benefits. The use of paper has a significant impact on our carbon footprint – not just from the chopping down of trees to make the paper, but also on the fossil fuel power used for printing, and the chemicals involved, too. We would like to move to a more progressive approach to our communications strategy and this is part of that initiative.

Rest assured you are not opting out of receiving information all together, everything will still be sent to you via email.

Please complete the opt-out form by clicking on the link below and help reduce our Union’s environmental footprint!

https://forms.gle/P8KDLgy2TZoFNNvq7

In solidarity,

COVID-19 Update – Mask Policy Follow-Up

Lisa Raymond on June 29, 2020

Further to the Union’s Health and Safety Update issued on June 17^th(click HERE to view it), we would like to clarify the following:

Procedures for respiratory PPE when cabin crew enter the flight deck, and flight crew exit the flight deck:

Cabin crew must have respiratory PPE on when they enter the flight deck.
Flight deck crew will don respiratory PPE prior to cabin crew entering the flight deck.
Flight deck crew will don respiratory PPE before exiting the flight deck to use the washroom etc.
Transport Canada currently allows flight crews to choose not to wear a face covering while in the flight deck alone or together.

The Union encourages all its members to keep the one-crew concept in mind when discussing this onboard amongst themselves and with their flight ops colleagues. It may be of use to know that the company policies were clearly communicated to Flight Crew on June 16^th in bulletin INFO 20-129, and to Cabin Crew on April 17^th in the bulletin titled Mandatory Face Coverings: Your questions answered (point 22).

Confused about the different types of masks? We have created the following table to assist:

In Solidarity,

As A Matter Of Fact – Tip Of The Week – IMMS Leaves

Lisa Raymond on June 29, 2020

An IMMS leave is a leave offered due to an Inability to Meet Medical Standards. It relates in part to Article 16.05 of the Collective Agreement.

16.05 Where due to incapacity resulting from sickness or injury an employee is transferred outside the scope of this Agreement or is on leave of absence, s/he shall maintain and accrue seniority for three (3) years. At the termination of this period his/her name shall be removed from the seniority list. This period may be extended by mutual agreement between the Union and applicable company.

Members are eligible for an IMMS leave if they are unable to meet medical standards to perform flight duties, i.e. are not fit to fly due to sickness or injury and have exhausted or do not qualify for paid sick leave, wage indemnity program (WIP) payments, workers’ compensation, and/or other disability benefits. There is a requirement to provide medical substantiation of the inability to perform flight duties as part of the qualification for this leave.

Component Officers’ Update for the Week of June 22, 2020

Lisa Raymond on June 26, 2020

As the week has progressed quickly, we wanted to send a quick update.

Recalls
For our members that have been, or are in the process of being, recalled we want to remind you that if you are on a leave of any sort, i.e.: WIP, Maternity, etc., you are still required to accept the recall notice that you have received. This does NOT interfere with any approved leaves; this just puts you back “online” for when you are prepared to come back and secures your position.

Air Canada Component Executive Meeting
Your executive board, consisting of the Component Officers and each Local Base President, has been meeting virtually multiple times a week, over the last few months. We have been able to maintain a more unified and aligned position on various Collective Agreement items and policy issues facing each of you. We have also just finished our regular ACCEX meeting completely virtually. Although it has its challenges not being face to face, or being able to present “paper copies” of items, we felt it was imperative to continue to ensure regular business, budget items and local issues were being reviewed and addressed. Each Local, including our Rouge Local, is represented at the table and has an important voice. We encourage all members to continue to reach out to your Union with any issues, concerns, or questions. This is how we will remain strong, unified and continue to push issues forward that are important to each of you.

2020-21 Component Budget
During our executive meeting, this week we passed a 6-month budget for the new fiscal year instead of the traditional 12-month budget, as it was difficult to estimate when we will return to larger active memberships. More information to come next week in the Component Secretary-Treasurer’s Update.

Recall Number for August
Many members have been reaching out with regards to recalls for August and into the fall. The Union has not been advised of recalls or numbers going forward. As with all information we have, we will ensure you are notified when we are.

Opting Out of Paper Mailings
In 2018, changes were made to the Air Canada Component Bylaws allowing members to opt-out of receiving physical mailings during elections and to receive communication electronically, solely via email. Your Component Officers will be issuing further information on this next week, stay tuned!

In solidarity,

Secretary-Treasurer’s Report – June 2020

Paper Mailings

COVID-19 Update – Mask Policy Follow-Up

As A Matter Of Fact – Tip Of The Week – IMMS Leaves

Component Officers’ Update for the Week of June 22, 2020

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