February 26, 2020 at 6:00 PM
On February 20th, Swissport, Unifor and Teamsters’ legal teams convened in Montreal with Arbitrator Claude Martin to review details of the continuing Blue Pass matter. As stated in the December 2nd, 2019 bulletin, the issue being discussed by the legal parties was specifically on how the award was to be divided amongst the three union groups.
Also present at this meeting were two representatives from Teamsters Local 419 (Toronto) who had been invited to attend this meeting by the Arbitrator and the Company. The issue has been whether Teamsters Local 419 should be included in the award from July 22nd, 2018. Unifor Local 2002 and Teamsters Local 1999 and 939 had filed grievances in May, 2012. Teamsters Local 419 had not filed a grievance until 2015. The Unifor and Teamsters’ legal teams presented arguments as to why Teamsters Local 419 should not be included in the award; however, Swissport’s lawyer argued that they should be part of this award as the details of usage and value (as researched and prepared by Deloitte) included the members of Teamsters Local 419.
Arbitrator Claude Martin will now review arguments from both sides and render his decision. Please note that this process may take considerable time. As such, we are expecting to meet again later in 2020 if necessary.
Should you have any questions or concerns, please contact the undersigned below. Again, we thank you for your patience.
In Solidarity,
Theresa Amicarelli, Assistant to the Local 2002 President
Josee Genois, Assistant to the Local 2002 President
/20-02-26 Handlex-Swissport Blue Pass update EN.txt