May 31, 2011 at 12:15 PM
The bargaining committee at Jazz-CAW representing customer service agents and aircraft services has pledged to commit their full support to the Air Canada CAW bargaining committee.
As members of the same Local and Union with interdependent employers, we will do whatever it takes to assist our brothers and sisters at Air Canada, in defeating the concessions agenda of the employer and in negotiating well deserved gains at the bargaining table.
We fully support the Air Canada committee as they fight to make progress. The airline sector is doing well in Canada and all workers deserve to share in that success.
It is no secret that Air Canada has paid exorbitantly high levels of executive salaries over the years; this in addition to the millions of dollars they have made in profits by selling off their most profitable subsidiaries.
Our members at Jazz bargained hard and achieved a fair settlement in 2009 as we fought to maintain our work, equal pay and recognition of our contribution to the company’s success. Air Canada workers are entitled to do the same. Air Canada has the ability to pay for progress at the bargaining table and that ability comes from the profits that workers are a big part of generating.
If the company forces the Union into strike action, no Jazz CSA/ACS worker will perform work that our CAW Air Canada members normally perform. That would only serve to divide the membership and support the employer’s agenda.
In the words of one of the Jazz bargaining committee members, "a set back or defeat at the Air Canada bargaining will affect the entire sector. We are all in this together and must do whatever we can to support Air Canada workers.”
In Solidarity,
Your Jazz Bargaining Committee
Ken White
Christine Unger
Bryan Cresswell
Francine Maillet
Josee Genois
Robert Pomanti
Ron Read
Joel Fournier, Staff Representative
Jamie Ross, President
Ashley Watkins, Executive Assistant, East
For more information, please contact:
Ashley Watkins, Executive Assistant, East