April 30, 2010 at 12:00 PM
APRIL 30, 2010
Roll Call:
- District 711 (Vancouver) Don Ross, Tom Troughton, John Murawesky
- District 712 (Calgary/Edmonton/Winnipeg) Adrien LeBis
- District 713 (London) Karen Leroux, Larry Thibert
- District 714 (Montreal/Ottawa/Quebec City)
- District 715 (Halifax) Pat McNiven, Paul Windsor, Corey Robinson
- District 716 (Toronto) Michael Lilly, Ghobud Khorasani
- Headquarters (Toronto) Ashley Watkins, Executive Assistant East
Time off
This continues to be an issue in Halifax. If your time off request is under 8 days, you are being automatically denied. There is currently a grievance on it at step 2. John Murawesky reminded everyone that the contract states that they need to give you a written reason for the denial under 8 days. Please reference Article 14.07 (a).
Cap (Culpable Absenteeism Policy) Policy
The Culpable Absenteeism Policy is an issue at all of our bases and the Company policy seems to keep changing. Currently they are asking for a doctor’s notes for anyone who has exceeded 10 sick days in 12 months. The Union has not agreed to any number and is cautious about ever agreeing to any number. Currently John is working on getting Family Days out of that calculation.
Narrow Body LOUs
There are lots of questions surrounding the Thomas Cook agreement. Unfortunately there are not a lot of answers at this time. Jazz still does not know exactly where the planes will fly from. They do know that they are going to [at least] start out with the 6, however there may be more aircraft.
There has been some resentment generated on what could happen with new hires. The Bargaining Committee would like everyone to be clear that this is just a starting point, and we need to make it work or we risk the company outsourcing the work. Signing the LOUs cemented our claim to the narrow body work. Even if we could train enough of our members by November, Transport Canada would not allow us to operate without any people experienced on type.
LOU 20 gives the company the flexibility for a limited time to form shifts that incorporate new hires with endorsement and experience on type so they can successfully operate while training senior members. The LOUs are not written aircraft type specific in case there are changes to what the company decides to fly. To make it aircraft specific runs the risk of getting us handcuffed.
LOU 21 is the other Thomas Cook related LOU. The Bargaining Committee was successful in reinstating the language that defines the night shift as being any shift that has four consecutive hours worked between midnight and 5am. This LOU will come into effect with the September shift bids for next year.
This initial deal is for the 2010 winter season, but Jazz is hopeful that this could turn into a year around operation with different destinations. (Since this call, Jazz has announced that they have invested $15 million to buy a 33% stake in Pluna Air out of Uruguay).
Officer Changes
- Bargaining Committee elections have been completed and posted. Congratulations to all in your respective locations.
- Michel Ruffie has stepped down as District Chair, so we will be posting for a permanent DC in London.
- Craig Hirtle has moved to Halifax and we will have to replace his vacant Vice Chair position in Ottawa.
- Mark Shorhen was elected as Tech 2 Bargaining Representative and will leave a vacant Vice Chair position in Calgary.
Health and Safety Coordinator
Ben Bachl is currently teaching a health and safety course in Toronto.
Over Time Call In
In the past, the company has wanted to try to deviate from using the OT list to call in people. One example would be to have certain people issued pagers so they are on call in case the Company requires them. The Union has not agreed to anything outside of the contract on this issue. Since last year the Company has been toying with the idea of implementing an automated phone messaging system. They have a list of recipients (OT call out list) programmed into the phone, they leave one message (We need three guys for OT tonight) and hit send. Everyone on the list gets the message and after an hour, you take the top three eligible members (for this example) who have replied. Vancouver was chosen as a test bed, but it has yet to materialize.
Vice President Report – Don Ross
- Park it, don’t tax it campaign : We have launched a campaign to try to kill the parking tax-grab. There is a petition on the website that we are asking all of our members to take the time to sign. There is information on there so that you can contact the minister directly to complain about parking being taxed. Also we are doing a post card campaign that we are asking all members to fill out. The CAW is committed to fight this, but we need your help!
- The last seniority list had many errors stemming from the changing of seniority list administrators. I will be meeting with the newest keeper of the seniority list to map out the seniority list process and make an effort to minimize errors in the future.
- Jazz has agreed to share the costs of Union Management Headquarters Meeting (UMHQ) translation of the minutes going forward.
- Local 2002 Council will be the May 10th week at Hockley Valley which is north of Toronto. At Council we bring in the District Chairs and Standing Bargaining Committees together from all of the Units in our Local. The purpose of Council is two fold; the first is governance as dictated by the Local’s bylaws. The reps are there to hear first hand what is happening in the Local and all it’s Units through the report from the President (Leslie Dias), and we hear how things are financially through the report of the Financial Secretary (Patty Southey) and then given a venue to ask questions. The second function of Council is educational where workshops are provided to help give the officers tools they can use, and guest speakers are brought in to lecture on topics such as the state of the Canadian Pension Plan.
- Jazz has finally billed the Local for union officer lost time after two years! Patty Southey will be going through it to check for accuracy.
Then new
Collective Agreement is now online on the CAW website (
click here). The Company has sent the contract out for printing.
In Solidarity,
Don Ross
CAW VP Local 2002
Jazz Technical Services
1-800-932-4564 ext: *5004