Air Canada's flight attendants will be in a legal position to strike after this year.
The Air Canada Component of CUPE represents 10,000 flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge. Its members will be in a legal position to strike after the expiration of their collective agreement with the airline on Mar. 31, 2025.
A spokesperson told V.I.A. that the goal is "always to achieve a contract without job action" but the union has some key concerns leading up to the deadline.
"The flight attendants, like the pilots, are coming out of a 10-year agreement but otherwise the issues they are facing are different," they said, noting that one of the central problems with the current contract is unpaid work.
The Air Canada Component of CUPE motto on its website heading into negotiations is "Unpaid work won't fly."
Airline attendants say many of their duties are unpaid
According to CUPE’s Airline Division, which represents approximately 18,500 flight attendants across Canada, flight attendants work an average of 35 hours of unpaid work monthly.
Bill C-409 aims to end unpaid work in the airline industry and has been tabled in the House of Commons. The bill underscores that flight attendants must ensure the "safety and comfort of passengers and security of the plane itself on the ground and at 25,000 feet." A flight attendant's job involves extensive training and re-training.
While some of their duties are paid, union members say others "are paid at or below the federal minimum wage, and even more are not paid at all, depending on which airline you work for."
Air Canada's union members say: "Because airlines don’t pay flight attendants for duties like assisting passengers with boarding, pre-flight safety checks, deplaning, and other delays, flight attendants spend nearly a full workweek every month working for free."
Can flight attendants strike immediately after their Air Canada contract expires?
Air Canada's flight attendants must go through a process with their employer after the contract expires before they can legally strike.
The union must go through collective bargaining with the airline. If an agreement isn't made, a conciliator will be appointed under the Canada Labour Code. If one isn't, the parties will enter a 60-day "cooling period."
Union members must vote to strike and issue a 72-hour notice before job action.
Air Canada narrowly avoided traveller chaos when it reached a tentative contract with its pilots' union in mid-September. The four-year agreement was officially ratified this week, retroactive to Sept. 30, 2023.
Air Canada has a webpage dedicated to contract talks and other negotiations.
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