Dear members,
Your CUPE uniform/luggage and Health & Safety Committee representatives spent over a year working on the new luggage, which was recently announced by the Company. They attended countless meetings and calls with the Company, did work on the joint Health & Safety Committees, and played a vital role advising our Union Executive. Their combined goals were simple: achieving quality luggage which will be useful, enjoyable, and safe for our members.
As with many projects, things have not been perfect. There has been a delay obtaining the luggage, and the Union was presented with some unexpected and difficult choices towards the end, which has resulted in a much longer than expected delay announcing the product to you.
It is important to know that your Union Executive stayed firm throughout, refusing to trade on other issues which are equally important to the membership. This was not always easy, knowing how much your luggage means to you, with no guarantee as to where discussions with the Company would lead. Our message has always been that our members work very hard to put a professional, caring, and Canadian face on this Company, and that they deserve the best in return. Given this, as well as the difficulties and delays that we have experienced with luggage, we felt that a full allotment was very much in order.
We are very pleased to announce that, despite previous communications, the Company has agreed to provide a full complement of luggage to all Mainline crew members for this allotment. This means that no one will have to pick and choose, potentially missing out on an exciting key component, or having to pay out of pocket for a lunchbox.
Along with the new uniform, the following luggage pieces will now be issued free of charge to everyone:
- A 21” two-wheel roller luggage.
- A 4-wheel spinner luggage/tote.
- A shoulder-tote.
- The larger, improved lunchbox.
The Union is pleased to see this project come to a satisfactory conclusion. We hope that you will enjoy the new luggage set that your representatives worked so hard on this past year.
In solidarity,
Marie-Hélène Major
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE