English
FrenchThere have been a number of inspections including Saskatoon, Cuba, Winnipeg, and Cancun.
Safety and security problems arose in Frankfurt as a result of ongoing renovations that caused crew to be displaced from the standard wing to another less than acceptable area of the hotel November 01, 2008. I joined the Air Canada hotel representative on a site inspection of the property mid May 2009 and met with the GM of the hotel to attempt to resolve the issues. We were successful in having him commit to completing the renovations by August 01, 2009 and moving our crew back to the previous wing. Since then the greatest concern has been on the room temperature, which was addressed with the hotel to the satisfaction of the flight attendant who brought this issue forward.
The Calgary airport hotel inspections occurred at the end of August. With only two properties inspected, our incumbent layover property, the Greenwood Inn, failed security, and the only viable alternative was the Delta Calgary Airport hotel. In addition, we made it clear to the Company that this would be an excellent opportunity to eliminate some of the growing disparity between the pilots and the flight attendants as the pilots’ contract had expired 6 months previously and they had been staying at the Delta, a substantially superior property to the Greenwood, ever since. After many assurances from the Company that our crew would be accommodated at the Delta effective November 01, 2009, they blatantly disregarded any feedback our Members offered through the hotel and transportation reports, reneged on their word, and put our crew back at the Greenwood. We are now in the process of filing a grievance, and looking forward to bringing this before Chief Arbitrator Kaplan.
Tel Aviv has not yet been resolved. When our crew were forced to move to the Crowne Plaza, it resulted in numerous hotel reports over the lack of amenities available during Sabbath and some safety concerns with the property itself. Though finding food during the meal periods continues to be an issue, the Company argues that because it is a downtown location it satisfies all the hotel requirements for a crew layover property. Our In House Lawyer has been reviewing the file and is looking at tackling this from more of a Health and Safety perspective.
The issue of disparity between the pilots and the flight attendants is also being addressed at this destination. The pilots are being given the right to use the business lounge and all its amenities, including hot food and beverages, where the flight attendants are flatly refused access. The Company has said they addressed this matter with the hotel and told them to stop but if the hotel continues to allow the pilots to use the lounge there is nothing they can do. We believe that because of the signed hotel contract, this hotel is an agent of Air Canada and therefore the Company has an obligation to ensure equal treatment of both groups. Should you have specific examples of this still occurring, please bring it to the attention of the Hotel Committee at hotels@accomponent.ca.
Any and all Hotel and Transportation reports must be made through the portal under My Work>Crew Scheduling and Planning>Additional Forms, Reports and Information>Hotel and Crew Transportation Report. Once submitted, the report is sent to the Company hotel representative, Joe Morello, and the Union is copied. The Company is then responsible for responding to the Members and following up with the hotel or transportation company. If the report is of a health and safety nature, it is forwarded to our Health and Safety Vice-Chair – OSH West, Silvana DeSantis who passes it on to the affected Local.
Nathalie Talbot is the Vice-Chair of the Hotel Committee and replaced me when we were in Bargaining. With her background in Health and Safety, she has already proven to be a huge asset to the Committee with her ability to deal with the Company over hotel issues.
In Solidarity,
Susan Holland
Component Hotel Chair – CUPE