In early February, the union had raised the
possibility of a strike at the end of March. With today’s
conclusion of a tentative agreement, that scenario has been
avoided.

The union will not comment on the details of the agreement until
the conclusion of the voting period towards the end of March.

« The union bargaining committee is very pleased to have reached a
tentative agreement. We believe that we achieved our objective: the
union’s first collective agreement, which definitely will improve
salaries and working conditions. Of course, the flight attendants
will have the final say on what happens next, » said Mark Brancelj,
president of the union for Sunwing flight attendants, CUPE Local
4055.

« The talks were very productive during the negotiations between
February 11 and 15. Both sides demonstrated a clear desire to reach
an agreement. The support of the conciliator from the Canadian
Ministry of Labour played a significant role, » said Caroline
Bédard, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)
representative for the file.

The union bargaining committee comprises representatives from each
of the airline’s six bases: Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa,
Montreal and Quebec City. Negotiations for the first collective
agreement began on September 12, 2012. At the company’s request, a
Ministry of Labour conciliator was appointed on January 2, and the
first two days of conciliation were January 17 and 18.

CUPE is Canada’s largest airline union. In addition to its Sunwing
members, CUPE represents nearly 10,000 flight attendants at a
number of carriers, including Air Canada, Air Transat, Calm Air,
Canadian North, CanJet, First Air and Cathay Pacific, as well as
ground agents at Porter Airlines in Ottawa.

CUPE is the largest union in Canada with 627,000 members working in
health, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social
services, public utilities, urban and air transport, emergency
services and communications.