Air Canada Bargaining 2011: A time for progress

Air Canada Bargaining 2011: A time for progress

October 1, 2010 at 9:30 AM
On September 29, 2010, Local 2002 President Leslie Dias welcomed the leadership of CAW-Air Canada in Toronto for a Pre-bargaining Leadership meeting.

Participants explored the negotiation process in depth: membership expectations, survey and proposal meetings and time lines for bargaining under the Canada Labour Code. In the afternoon, approximately 85 Chairpersons, Vice Chairpersons and Regional Vice Presidents from across the country participated in an insightful education workshop focusing on communications strategies and building power in our Union.

Peggy Nash, Assistant to CAW National President, Ken Lewenza discussed the role of leaders in the workplace and  challenged the energetic group to engage and mobilize the membership going into this round of collective bargaining.

CAW Economist, Jim Stanford offered his insights about industry trends and in true Letterman fashion, presented the group with the top ten reasons why Air Canada members deserve a raise, concluding that the number one reason that Air Canada employees deserve a raise is that former AC CEO Robert Milton has scooped 86 million dollars in eight years (the equivalent of 1722 CAW worker salaries for one year).

Bargaining representatives were on hand to answer questions and to distribute surveys to every district in their region. The surveys are now in the workplace and will be collected by October 10, 2010. All members are strongly encouraged to participate. The results of these surveys will be communicated at proposal meetings being held across the country from October 12-29.

“Our membership knows better than anyone what the employer is doing in their workplaces and to their jobs. This survey and the proposal meetings are an opportunity to hear from as many members as possible about what is important to them,” said Dias. “We intend to show this employer that we stand together and that it is time for progress!”

The current collective agreement for over 4000 Air Canada Customer Service Agents, Flight Operations and Crew Schedulers expires in March, 2011.