August 16, 2010 at 6:00 AM
Roll Call:
- District 711 (Vancouver) Don Ross, Tom Troughton
- District 712 (Calgary/Edmonton/Winnipeg) Stacey Laliberte, Adrien LeBis
- District 713 (London) Ryan Boundy, Mike Emery, Ben Bachl
- District 714 (Montreal/Ottawa/Quebec City) Regrets
- District 715 (Halifax) Terry Fenerty, Tim Way
- District 716 (Toronto) Mike Lilly, Mike Kingston, Ghobud Khorasani
Pension Committee
The pension committee representatives posting for Jazz Technical Services, CSA/ACS & Crew Schedulers is now out. The deadline for applications is Friday, August 27.
Seniority List
Even though the contract calls for the seniority list to be posted [yearly] March 30 and September 30, the company and Union agreed many years ago that it made more sense to have the seniority list posted in August in time for the September shift bids. We expect the list to be available shortly.
Accommodations
Jonathan Cristo (Benefits Representative) said that he feels the company has been consistent in how they handle accommodations throughout the system. There does, however, appear to be a disconnect in the information that the District Chairpersons are receiving at the base level. We will be scheduling a conference call between Jonathan and the District Chairpersons to resolve this issue.
Contract Booklet
John Murawesky (Bargaining Chairperson) says that the Union and Company gave the go ahead last week to print 1300 contract booklets which will ready in a few weeks. The valid LOUs will be printed in the back of the booklet.
UMHQ/Regional
The next UMHQ (Union Management Head Quarters) meeting date is tentatively scheduled for the week of September 20 in Toronto, although it has yet to be confirmed at this time. We will attempt to join the Regional meeting with the UMHQ and bring in the District Chairpersons and Bargaining Committee together.
Thomas Cook
The Company has hired 20 ex-Skyservice engineers to help service the Boeing 757’s. So far we have trained 8 people (24 in total by November 2010) on the 5 week endorsement course and Jazz is committed to train at least 15 more every year. The rules concerning who will go on endorsement courses remains the same as it has been in the past for other aircraft types. The tentative start date for 757 flying is November 5 with two jets at first and the others will be gradually brought in. Further, September 15 is the first day that the afternoon shift differential will go to a full hour. As long as we start Thomas Cook flying, that shift differential will stay in our language for the duration of the contract. The Collective Agreement states that the Crew Chief needs to be qualified. For the Thomas Cook aircraft in Toronto, there will be temporary Crew Chiefs selected for 6 months after which they will step down to a non Crew Chief rate. Current Crew Chiefs will not be disadvantaged during this duration.
Q400
At this point we believe that endorsement courses will be starting in September with tentative flights scheduled for December. We are not sure where the company plans to fly these aircraft which will effect which bases will get training first.
Health and Safety Coordinator
Ben Bachl has been looking after the airports group as well as the Tech group while their coordinator is on vacation. Generally it seems that Jazz management does not want to follow any code unless they are pushed into it. In London the Company went 17 days without custodial staff cleaning the bathrooms. Ben had to take action before the Company brought someone in. There is a new process for wing to wing fuel transfer from one aircraft to another. He cautions that this should not be done while in a hangar. While the CIF (Continuous Improvement Facilitators) program is great, the facilitators are not trained in Health and Safety or the Labour Code. He recommends that the Health and Safety reps be brought into the CIF process. Ben will be traveling to most of the bases starting with Calgary in September. Jazz plans to integrate OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) into the SMS (Safety Management System). There has been some concern that Union involvement in the investigation process might be curtailed because of this. Ben will monitor the situation to ensure that it does not occur.
Base Reports
- D711 – Several Company personnel have been away, therefore everything has been fairly quiet. The shift bid is posted but there are some mistakes that need correction. It will be basically the same formula as last year.
- D712 – Shift bids are coming soon; nothing dramatic. Summer has been fairly quiet, but the shift bids will certainly liven things up a bit.
- D713 – There was a question on whether you had to pay for extra vacation time that needed topping up right away or at time that the vacation is taken. The answer is as per the last UMHQ is you would pay out of your cash bank at the time of vacation with the option to take it as unpaid. Shift talks are on going at this point.
- D714 – Regrets
- D715 – Currently there on-going talks regarding next years’ shifts. The Company took away our suggestions and will get back to us. CAP (Culpable Absenteeism Policy) is still going strong. We have a few grievances for disciplinary letters related to CAP.
- D716 – There are many large ongoing issues with accommodations, vacation slot calculations, stat time denials, and lack of contract booklets. As stated above, new contract booklets will be shortly and be available for members. The new twist on CAP is that if you shift trade and get sick during that time, you get an automatic CAP meeting. No one has been disciplined nor denied shift trades because of it.
In Solidarity,
Don Ross
CAW VP Local 2002
Jazz Technical Services
(800) 932-4564 ext: *5004