January 23, 2014 at 12:56 PM
Annette Boissonneault and Martine Lamoureux have many things in common: they are personable, vibrant and quick to laugh; they are Local 2002 district chairpersons and customer service agents who work together at the Quebec City airport (YQB). Both women represent their union and their employer with professionalism and pride.
But this is where the story differs; although they do the same job, they have separate employers. Annette has worked part-time for Jazz since 2005. Martine started her career as a part-time agent with Canadian Airlines in Toronto in 1998 and four years later transferred to Quebec City, her hometown.
Annette and Martine work at one of five Jazz/Air Canada "shared bases” in the Canadian airport system which includes Charlottetown, Quebec City, Moncton and Saint John and Thunder Bay. Unifor members who work in shared bases work under Jazz rules.
"When Quebec City became a Jazz base, we faced challenges because of the new work rules coming from the Jazz world,” recalls Martine. "We knew we had to embrace the changes and to make it work and we needed people with great care and communication skills.”
With the support of Local 2002 vice president Sandra Cormier and Jazz bargaining representative Josée Genois, Martine approached Annette and asked her to take on a leadership role.
"I was green in the union, but I knew we needed to have a united front when we dealt with the company,” says Annette. "I collaborated with Martine and we agreed to exchange information and communicate regularly with our membership. "
Over the years they have developed an extremely effective co-operative approach, holding joint membership meetings at least three times a year.
On January 20, 2014, in recognition of the ongoing challenges that continue in small bases, Local 2002 invited district chairpersons and bargaining representatives from Air Canada and Jazz (who work or represent members at shared bases) to Toronto in order to jointly review the current Jazz collective agreement. Jazz bargaining chairperson Shirley Anderson facilitated the meeting, clarifying contract language, Tom Hodge’s Interest Arbitration Award, subsequent supplementary awards and LOUs (Letter of Understanding) for relief status lines.
Everyone who attended the one day training session was excited to participate in this new initiative from the union and hope to see more collaboration between the two units in the future.
"Based on the success of this initiative, Local 2002 will continue to hold leadership meetings to resolve shared base issues,” said President Jamie Ross. "It is incredibly empowering when we work together to resolve our issues.”