August 2, 2011 at 4:20 PM
After 17 weeks of negotiations and the participation of a federal conciliator, the CUPE component of Air Canada has reached a tentative agreement that will be presented to 6800 members across the country for ratification.
The tentative five-year agreement includes wage increases, pension protection, better crew rest and increased meal allowances. As with the CAW Local 2002 Customer Service agreement reached in June, concerns regarding pension plans for new hires will go to arbitration.
Meanwhile, members from other unions at Air Canada, whose collective agreements have expired, have yet to reach an agreement: CAW flight operations and in flight crew schedulers’, IAMAW mechanics and baggage handlers, CALDA flight dispatchers and pilots with ACPA.
"All five unions at Air Canada will travel over the same road to our new contracts ...directly over the foundation that is laid down by the CAW. As the CAW is showing us, the task is formidable, but not insurmountable,” writes Christopher Hiscock , (President of IAMAW Canadian Airways Lodge 764, British Columbia in The Snag Sheet June, 2011).
Life is a highway.
But it shouldn’t be highway robbery.
Local 2002 wishes all of our current and future brothers and sisters negotiating with Air Canada a fair deal.