CanJet flight attendants worried about the company’s future
11 février 2013
Montreal,
Monday, February 11, 2013 CanJet flight attendants and
their union are experiencing considerable uncertainty about the
future of the company and their jobs. In January, Air Transat
announced plans to acquire smaller aircraft: single-aisle Boeing
737s. This poses a threat to CanJet’s main activity, namely
providing Air Transat with outsourced connections requiring smaller
aircraft.
CanJet flight attendants work exclusively on Boeing 737s. Wondering
if they might lose their jobs in the short or medium term, they are
asking the company to involve them more in the current changes.
« The CanJet
management is optimistic. They advised their employees on January
15 that it will remain under contract with Air Transat until May
2014. They claim that negotiations are underway between the two
companies, and that an announcement could be made by the middle of
February. That’s all well and good, but the flight attendants still
feel like they’re living on borrowed time, » said Chantal
Bourgeois, the National Representative responsible for the file
with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
« We understand what’s involved in
a negotiation context. We hope that CanJet will provide greater
clarity and communication on the various possible
scenarios, » added the representative.
CanJet flight attendants are emergency specialists whose primary
role is to ensure passenger safety. They are represented by CUPE
Local 4044. Their current collective agreement will expire on June
30, 2014.
They are approximately 450. 195 of them are based in Montreal, 172
in Toronto, and 41 in Vancouver. 42 others are based in Quebec City
during the winter season only, and 7 are recalled to Halifax in
February and March 2013 on an ad hoc basis.
CUPE is Canada’s largest airline union. In addition to its CanJet
members, CUPE represents nearly 10,000 flight attendants at
carriers including Air Canada, Air Transat, Sunwing, Calm Air,
Canadian North, First Air and Cathay Pacific, as well as ground
agents at Porter Airlines in Ottawa.
CUPE is the largest union in Canada with 618,000 members working in
health, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social
services, public utilities, urban and air transport, emergency
services and communications.