ZRH Layover – “Zurich Card”
The Company has agreed to pay for the purchase of a Zurich card of $18.00 CAD. Members should submit expense claims, which will be approved. This card may be purchased from the hotel front desk and can be used for transportation to downtown Zurich and other amenities. This agreement is effective from the June block month and will remain in effect until the end of the 2007 summer season. Hotel inspections have been planned for early September to ensure a downtown location is secured.
B777 In-Charge Pay Rates
In-Charge rates of pay on the B777, effective July 2007, reflect the following:
- B777-300 and B777-200 with a sole In-Charge, Article 5.05 of the Collective Agreement applies ($65.44).
- B777-300 and B777-200 with two In-Charges on board, Article 5.04.02 of the Collective Agreement applies ($63.13).
It has also come to the Union’s attention that members are stating that there are not enough crew members on some routes flown by the B777. The Union will address this issue with the Company at the next Union/Management meeting scheduled to take place on July 27, 2007.
Flight Attendant Move-Ups to In-Charge CHQ-07-21
A policy grievance at level 2 has been filed. This issue is not getting resolved and flight attendants are continuing to be moved-up prior to the drafting of In-Charges, violating the Collective Agreement. Please continue to provide your Local Union Office documentation on each occurrence.
Pension Buybacks for those Taking the VSP Effective October 1, 2007
If you are awarded the VSP in October 2007 and if you wish to buy back pension, it must be done prior to your retirement date. Details of this and other buybacks are included in the VSP package.
PBS Website Changes
The PBS bidding website has moved from its previous location on the “My Toolbox” page of the Aeronet Portal. You will need to log on to the “My News” page of the portal and look under “My IFS News > Crew Scheduling and Planning” to access the PBS Website.
Update on Component Website Changes / Additions
- Members’ Access: Discussion and research on implementing changes to the way a member can access the information stored on the area of the Component website, reserved solely for members, is now complete.
Update on Component Website Changes / Additions – Cont’d
- Members’ Access – Cont’d
It has been acknowledged that while everyone may not remember their voting card number, all members know their employee number. It has therefore been decided to replace the “voting card number,” currently used as the “user name”, with the member’s “employee number”, as a means to access the secure area of the Component website. However, please keep in mind that the security of the site is still of the utmost importance and will not be compromised. The PIN presently used by each member when voting will still be retained as the member’s “password” to enter the secure area. When voting, you will still use your “voting card number”.
Due to vacation commitments and the volume of work to be undertaken by the website administrator to effect these changes, I have estimated that this work will be completed by mid August 2007. Once we have a more definitive date for the implementation of this change, all members will be notified.
- Lesley’s Blog: In conjunction with the above work on the website, our website administrator is also working on the development of this blog and plans to introduce it at the same time the above changes are implemented. Again, members will be given advance notice of the effective date this blog will be available.
Once the blog is implemented, I encourage all members to make use of this valuable communication tool.
Paperless Communication
The Component Officers would like to hear from you in regards to an initiative being contemplated. Having Component bulletins sent to you in electronic form would potentially save the Union approximately $40,000 per year. A minimum amount of paper bulletins would still be issued either via your Comm. Centres or Local Union Offices. Please give us your opinion by emailing contact@accomponent.ca. If we were to make these changes, it would be phased in over a 6-month period. In the meantime, please sign up to receive your bulletins electronically by logging into the Component website at www.accomponent.ca and clicking on “join our email list”, which is located along the left side of the Component’s website homepage.
Component Committee Appointments
I am pleased to inform you that Nick Beveridge has been appointed as a member of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) Committee.
President’s Hotline Message, Phone Line
We have had some technical difficulties in the last couple of weeks, but are pleased to inform you they are now fixed. For updates please call 1-800-735-2676 or locally 416-258-1175.
In unity,
Lesley Swann
President, Air Canada Component of CUPE