Consent – Rouge Fleet Growth

Your ACCEX would like to provide you with the formal update regarding consent for Rouge growth as per Article 2.04.07 of your Collective Agreement.
Article 2.04.07 reads:
Air Canada must get the Union’s consent to increase the total number of aircraft operated at Air Canada Rouge beyond fifty (50) during the term of the Collective Agreement. Consent will not be unreasonably withheld provided that Air Canada Mainline Cabin Personnel are not negatively affected.
The Company announced the forecasted addition of three (3) aircraft to Rouge to bring the fleet total to 51 in January of 2018.
Accordingly, Air Canada formally came to CUPE for consent in May 2018. As stated in Article 2.04.07, the issue of the Union providing or withholding consent rests on the concept of ‘negatively affected’.
In the interim, your ACCEX had sought legal clarity on the concept of ‘negatively affected’. Naturally, our position was that aircraft type, route preference, pairing designation etc. were considered in this equation in addition to the obvious factor of financials.
Consequently your Union asked the Employer for full disclosure and signed non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to ensure this premise. Some financials and route information were provided by Air Canada. We analyzed all of the data provided.
At this stage, upon review with legal, your Union was preliminarily satisfied that there was no claim to be made, and that there seemed to be no obvious demonstrable ‘negative effect’ from the addition of the 3 aircraft to Rouge’s fleet.
In the interim however, ACPA signed their re-openers and it was clear that gains had been made for their collective and a reworking had been made of the pilots’ scope and pay at Rouge.
As we were concerned about the influence this may have had on our notion of consent, we also sought full disclosure of the Pilots agreement. We wanted to leave no stone unturned. Therefore we asked for disclosure of the additional, associated ACPA financials. The Company advised that we were not entitled to ACPA’s Re-opener financials.
As a result, we proposed an articulated time-frame with which to determine whether our mainline members had been unfavourably affected as we were concerned that the effects may produce months after the new aircraft were transferred to the Rouge fleet.
This matter of an additional time-frame of determination was referred to Arbitrator Tom Hodges and we attended mediation on May 31, 2018.
On that day, new restrictions were proposed by the Company regarding negative effect and consent. These matters were discussed within the structure of mediation without Prejudice and Precedent and the Union is therefore precluded from providing you, the members, with any specifics or further details on what the Company was stating as their position. The Union rejected these newly proposed restrictions.
As a result of this, and on the advice of counsel and the mediator, your Union elected not to proceed to Arbitration on the matter of the requested time-frame and formally afforded Air Canada consent to the addition of the 3 aircraft to Rouge’s fleet.
Consequently, Air Canada accepted CUPE’s consent on July 23, 2018.
Please be advised that Article 2.04.07 remains fully in effect for any future growth and that the Company must return to the Union for consent for any additional fleet growth at Rouge.
In solidarity,
ACCEX