days until our Collective Agreement expires, we are preparing, we are united and we will make change.

Historic petition to end unpaid work for Flight Attendants lands in the House of Commons

An historic petition has landed in the House of Commons, calling on the Federal Government to fix loopholes that allow airlines to require Flight Attendants to work an average of 35 hours every month for free.

The petition was launched by CUPE’s Airline Division, and sponsored by NDP MP Taylor Bachrach, who serves as his party’s Transport Critic. The petition received over 17,000 signatures in just a month!

You can watch Taylor introducing the petition in the House of Commons here.

The Liberal government now has until November 5, 2023 to respond. Will they side with thousands of Flight Attendants at Canadian airlines, or will they side with the airline executives requiring Flight Attendants to work 35 hours every month for free?

Flight attendants and workers across Canada will be watching.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE

LOU 61 – A330/A321XLR Crew Rest Seats – October 2023 Block Month

(This applies to AC Mainline only)

For the block month of October 2023, the following flights fall under LOU 61 and are scheduled for A330 aircraft. They will have 2 (two) dedicated crew rest seats:

– AC070 YUL-ALG
– AC071 ALG-YUL
– AC073 CMN-YUL

– AC808 YYZ-AMS
– AC809 AMS-YYZ
– AC811 LIS-YYZ
– AC813 LIS-YUL
– AC814 YUL-NCE
– AC815 NCE-YUL
– AC816 YYZ-VCE
– AC817 VCE-YYZ
– AC818 YUL-VCE
– AC819 VCE-YUL
– AC822 YUL-BCN
– AC823 BCN-YUL

– AC824 YYZ-MAD
– AC825 MAD-YYZ
– AC833 BRU-YUL
– AC836 YYZ-MUC
– AC837 MUC-YYZ
– AC840 YYZ-FRA
– AC841 FRA-YYZ
– AC842 YYZ-FRA
– AC843 FRA-YYZ
– AC846 YUL-FRA
– AC847 FRA-YUL
– AC853 LHR-YYZ
– AC855 LHR-YYZ

– AC872 YYZ-CDG
– AC873 CDG-YYZ
– AC875 CDG-YUL
– AC877 LYS-YUL
– AC879 TLS-YUL
– AC884 YUL-GVA
– AC885 GVA-YUL
– AC886 YYZ-VIE
– AC887 VIE-YYZ
– AC894 YUL-MXP
– AC895 MXP-YUL

What if these flights operate on B777/787 aircraft?
LOU 61 is specific to the A330/A321XLR aircraft, and not applicable to the B777/787. The B777/787 has crew bunks that may be used for crew rest/break purposes.
 
In Solidarity,

Component Crew Rest Committee

A Message From The Council Of Unions – 2009 Share Trust Agreement Update #5

The Council of Unions met with the Company on Friday, September 15th, 2023, during which the Company provided an update on the status of the Share Trust. Air Canada informed the Council that it is still working diligently with the authorities to get the appropriate approvals regarding the Share Trust. The Company committed to issue a more detailed update to the employees and pensioners in the upcoming weeks.

Click HERE to view the original bulletin.

In solidarity,
Charlene Hudy, MEC Chair, Air Canada Pilots, ALPA
Wesley Lesosky, Component President, Air Canada Component of CUPE & President, Airline Division of CUPE
Frances Galambosy, National Representative, UNIFOR
Dave Flowers, President & Directing General Chairperson District 140, IAMAW
Ken Yakiwchuk, Council Chair, Canadian Airline Dispatchers Association (CALDA)

Component Executive Update – September 2023

Your Component Executive had their quarterly meeting in Montreal from September 12th-14th. We have had a great deal of discussion about our next round of bargaining. These discussions have been ongoing, however the more we get into the plans for bargaining, the more inspired and committed to the process we are becoming. A ten-year contract has been hindering us at every turn and we feel that now is our time to make a difference and to right this ship.  It is your turn to be recognized for all that you have done and for your contributions to the success of this company.

As a part of our preparations, we had presentations from two high level media companies. We are becoming very excited about the possibilities of what we can achieve by utilizing creative and impactful social media strategies.

We have harnessed the talents of CUPE National via their research representatives, bargaining experts, communications experts and so many more. Our legal firm has worked closely with us on many grievances and is acutely aware of some of the shortcomings of our contract. They are prepared and very engaged in working with us to create the most powerful path forward. In the future we will be introducing you to all these experts and to your bargaining committee so that you can see who will be representing you and how committed to the process they are.

We started the process of the “Meet and Greet” for members while your Executive was together.  The members who attended had amazing questions and we felt that this method of communication was very effective. We encourage other members to join us on our next “Meet and Greet” session and to come to us with your questions. We encourage members to send us their questions in advance of the session so that we can make the best use of our time. We will answer those questions and will then have a free and open question period.  We talk a lot about the importance of membership engagement internally and we sincerely want to hear from you. If we open our lines of discussion and hear your stories and experiences and questions we are further ahead for our communication and mutual understanding of the important issues ahead of us all in 2025.

Our next ACCEX meeting is in the first week of December. Stay tuned for our bulletin advising when the Meet and Greet will be. We look forward to seeing you there.

In solidarity,

Your ACCEX

Probationary Performance Meetings – Overall Attendance

Earlier this week the Union was advised that Air Canada will be calling a large group of members in to discuss their “Overall Attendance”. We were shocked and dismayed to learn that the Company has called in over 40 probationary members at the Vancouver base. The Union believes the Company failed to adhere to the Collective Agreement and advise the alleged misdemeanor for these meetings and instead they grouped them all as “Overall Attendance”.

The Union reached out and advised that this gave the member no understanding of the “issue” and that the employer should be more specific to allow the member an opportunity to best recollect the alleged incident and be mentally prepared in the meeting. The Union was advised late last night that the letters were changed and once received, we noted they now stated “Overall Attendance (time frame – June 01st – September 10th)”.

The Company is well within their right to meet with their employees, but they should do it in a respectful, non-confrontational, and a more open and transparent process. There is nothing more alarming and concerning to any employee, especially one on probation, than to come to work one day and get a letter regarding a meeting with no information.

What is more concerning is the fact that some members had one book off during this period, and the only way the Union was able to figure out the “overall attendance” issue was to do the research themselves. The Company is calling the members in, they know why, what is the reason they cannot share this in advance to lesson the worry and angst the members are now feeling?

We have heard the company speak on more than one occasion about employee engagement. It seems counterproductive to their goal of employee engagement to be haranguing new employees. It is our opinion that an initiative such as this will only serve to lower the morale of all probationary employees. A culture of fear serves no employer in the long run and has zero benefit.

The Union is left wondering why this is necessary and why employee morale is yet again taking an unneeded hit with a poorly executed 7 days of nonstop performance meetings.

The Vancouver Local will have the full backing of the Executive Board and the Grievance Committee. We will review each performance meeting that takes place and will ensure grievances are filed on any and all violations found through this process.

Your UNION is behind each of you firmly, we will ensure you are well represented and if any discipline is issued through this process it will be challenged.

Based on the above, the Union has filed policy grievance CHQ-23-66, attached HERE.  We look forward to discussing this with the employer.

In Solidarity,

Wesley Lesosky
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE