Air Canada
Flight Attendants Overwhelmingly Say "No!" to Concessions
New Horizons Editorial
- August 28, 2011
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On August 27 the Air Canada
Component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) released
the results of the ratification vote on the Tentative Agreement that
the Bargaining Committee had signed
with the Company and unanimously recommended. With 78.6% of the
membership casting ballots, this vote represented the highest ever
level of participation. A whopping
87.8% of those voting took the courageous stand to reject the tentative
agreement despite the campaign of fear-mongering. And everyone
recognizes that even most of those
who voted for acceptance did so reluctantly, strongly influenced by the
propaganda that, not only could we get nothing better but that we risk
being put in a position of
faring even worse.
This decision by cabin personnel to refuse to bow to the
kind of pressure under which they were placed by "the current political
context" and the campaign of fear has
brought about an unseen unity between juniors, mid-seniority and senior
flight attendants as well as between the groups that now make up the
Air Canada Component.
New Horizons salutes the cabin personnel for
taking this courageous decision and we look forward to continue
participating in the discussions on the way
forward.
The New Situation Requires New Solutions
- New Horizons, August 28, 2011
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What has become very clear
over the past few rounds of
negotiations, whether with In-Flight Service or with other departments
in the Company as well as throughout
the economy in Canada, is that the situation has inexorably changed
since the social contract was established after WWII to guarantee
labour peace. For many years now,
we no longer have a process where the two parties -- management and the
workers represented by their unions -- sit down to negotiate mutually
satisfactory working
conditions and compensation.
We now have the Company engaging in something that
appears to be very similar to extortion. This is enforced with the
threat of disaster or state intervention -- or
both. Yet they tell us that we must continue to "negotiate" in the old
way. This is an untenable situation that has led us to where we find
ourselves now.
The Company has long accused us of threatening its
well-being and the interests of its shareholders by demanding the
continuity of the pensions it agreed to when it
hired us along with wages and working conditions at a Canadian standard
and commensurate with the important role we play as safety and service
professionals. Now the
government is saying that this defence of our interests threatens the
Canadian economy and must be crushed.
Whose economy is this the Harper government is
defending? It is our economy and we must decide its direction. The
government must fulfill its role to the working
people of this country and not to the handful of mega-rich who are out
to put every cent of added value that we produce into their pockets.
Closer to home, we must look at how negotiations are
being conducted under the new conditions and how we can turn that
around to serve our interests. We must tell
the Company that we, too, recognize that the situation has changed and
we intend to be part of the process from now on.
These questions need discussion. The kind of open
meetings that were held to discuss the "tentative agreement" must be
held to discuss the way forward. They should
be organized at every base and in every city where there are large
numbers of commuters. A "new business" or "for the good of the union"
item tagged on at the end of
a lengthy, bureaucratic agenda will not allow, let alone foster, the
kind of discussion that is necessary to come up with answers.
Together we can and must end our marginalization. We
have begun by standing together and declaring we will not accept the
unacceptable. Let us participate massively
in discussing how to bring this process to fruition.
What Do We Do Next?
The Need to Establish New Mechanisms
- New Horizons, August 28, 2011
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Cabin personnel at Air Canada have taken a decisive step
in ending our marginalization by voting overwhelmingly to reject the
Tentative Agreement (TA) that the Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE)
Bargaining Committee had signed with the Company and unanimously
recommended. Refusing to submit to the threats and pressure we turned
their words into deeds by
affirming our dignity and insisting that the important work we do in
attending to the safety and well-being of our passengers entitles us to
a say
in determining decent working
conditions and an appropriate wage as well as a guarantee of security
throughout our working lives and in retirement.
Many question how and why we got into this situation but
the most important question that is on everyone's mind and that remains
to be answered at this time is, "What
do we do next?" Many readers have proposed a number of suggestions. We
should have the opportunity to discuss all of them in order to come to
satisfactory conclusions
that will allow us to set our own agenda and consolidate our new-found
strength.
Because the conciliation process was precipitated at a
time when we were being told that everything was going well, the
Bargaining Committee has now called for a
strike vote beginning this week. It seems that the strength of the
rejection of the tentative agreement is a clear indication to the
Company that we expect something better.
What we really need now is time to work out a new direction for the
negotiation process.
One of the most important aspects of the discussions
over the past couple of weeks has been the expression of the necessity
and our desire to end our isolation from
the negotiation process. The rejection of the tentative agreement is an
illustration of the need for us to be at the centre of this process. We
do not need experts or advisors
or highly paid lawyers or other intermediators to "represent" us.
Nobody can represent us better than we, ourselves. Now is the time to
begin the discussion on how we can
place ourselves at the centre of the process and to put in place the
mechanisms for bringing this about.
As the editorial in this bulletin pointed out, the
situation has changed from what it was a few years ago. The Company has
changed its strategy but we continue to act
in the old way. The only way we can guarantee any progress is to take
stock of the new conditions and new context we are facing and work
collectively to ensure our voice
continues to be heard.
Is simply sending the same people back to the bargaining
table to tell the Company that we feel their "best offer" stinks going
to make us stronger and help us win a
better contract? If the Company feels it no longer has to bargain, will
a change in the bargaining committee make us stronger? If we are told
we won't be able to go on strike,
what is the purpose of a strike vote? We should add, nevertheless, that
because we are faced with a strike vote, we call for 100% participation
and for everybody, including
those who reluctantly voted to accept the TA, to express their
determination to continue to stand up for our rights, our interests
and our dignity and to vote "yes" and send
the message to the Company and to the Harper government that we are not
pushovers.
Although it seems that the whole "conciliation" process
was precipitated in order to line us up for a "favourable" strike date,
that, too, has changed. The important thing
is that we must tell the Company that we, too, now recognize that the
overall situation is not what it was 10 years ago and we now intend to
be part of the process. We expect
them to bargain seriously and respectfully and we demand that the
negotiations no longer be held behind closed doors.
Ending secret negotiations doesn't mean that we expect
them to be held in an arena with everybody being allowed to have their
say whenever and however they want.
It means that we demand our right to know what is going on through
whatever technological means are available, secure and practical. It
also means that we want our
bargaining committee to involve us at every step of the process,
soliciting and accepting our feedback. As one reader expressed it, "we
want to take back the control of the
steering wheel of OUR vehicle."
If we work together as a collective with the same
determination we illustrated during the campaign to reject the
collective agreement, we can create the new mechanisms
we need to turn the situation around in our interests. We have no other
choice.
September 3, 2011 Bulletin • Return to Index • Write to: editor@cpcml.ca
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