Bargaining Update #24

Dear Members,

As 2020 comes to a close, your CUPE 4070 WestJet Bargaining Committee has concluded all scheduled bargaining dates for the year.

Since our previous update, the Union met with the Company for another round of negotiations. We are now well into the final monetary package, which includes all outstanding items since Collective Bargaining began.

There are two (2) possible ways forward from here:

1) Tentative Agreement is reached through negotiation

Should the Company and Union come to a Tentative Agreement on this final package, including all outstanding items, the Collective Bargaining process would be complete. The Tentative Agreement (TA) in its entirety would then be released to the WestJet Bargaining Unit members in preparation for a ratification vote. This is the preferred outcome at this time.

2) Tentative Agreement is not reached due to impasse

Should the Company and the Union be unable to agree on one (1) or more parts of this final package, and either party determines there is no practical way forward to solve our differences, negotiations would be at Impasse.

a) Arriving at Impasse would trigger a sixty (60) day conciliation period. A conciliator would be appointed by the Federal Government to impartially facilitate further discussions between the Company and Union with the goal of reaching an agreement. Conciliation is non-binding, and there is no obligation on either party to move from their position. The sixty (60) day period may be extended with mutual agreement of both parties.

b) If the parties come to an agreement on the outstanding item(s) during conciliation, bargaining would be complete. This would mean preparing for the release of the Tentative Agreement and the subsequent ratification process.

c) If the parties do not come to an agreement on the outstanding items once the conciliation period is over, a legally required twenty-one (21) day cooling-off period would begin. Following that, the Union would be in a strike position, meaning we would have the right to take legal job action*. The Employer would likewise be in a legal lockout position. What this means is that negotiations have broken down to a point where the Union is asking Members to withdraw their labour to apply pressure for the Company to take our unresolved concerns seriously. This is never where we want to end up as a union, but rest assured that if this is what occurs, each Member who participates in a minimum number of hours per week on a picket line are eligible for Strike Pay both from CUPE National and from the CUPE Airline Division.

(* Legal job action includes work-to-rule, targeted strike, and general strike action. Job action requires a Strike Vote from the Union Membership. Before holding a Strike Vote, your Union would communicate with all bargaining unit Members on what has led to the need for a Strike Mandate.)

As of the last exchanges, both parties are still talking. We continue to work in good faith to find common ground in areas of disagreement. While this is time-consuming, this is what it takes to get the best possible first Collective Agreement, we are in a position to negotiate; a task which has been made all the more difficult by the economic and political pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Although good progress was made on a number of outstanding issues last week, there remains one issue in particular for which the Union requires solid language to be included in our first Collective Agreement: Scope.

Scope Language is crucial. The only way the Union can permanently protect WestJet members from the transfer of capacity, and any potential delay to WestJet recall due to disproportionate capacity or route growth at the ULCC brand, is by negotiating those terms into a binding Collective Agreement. Your Bargaining Committee unanimously pledges that we will stand with you in solidarity to protect the good jobs that we have created over the past twenty-five (25) years together. Our Cabin Crew were instrumental in the success and development that WestJet has seen since its inception, and we are so proud of that accomplishment.

For all of these reasons, the Union has made clear to the Company that we require assurances that our jobs, and work, are protected.

The first weeks of 2021 will be critical to determining if we will find common ground on these outstanding issues. All of the work we have done to negotiate fair terms and a healthy first Collective Agreement has brought us to where we are today. It is our hope that in the new year, we find the Company willing to discuss the aforementioned protections.

We hear you loud and clear: our hard-earned careers as WestJet Cabin Crew Members are not on the auction block. Not now, not ever.

The next planned rounds of Bargaining for the WestJet Bargaining Committee are scheduled to take place:

- January 5 – 7, 2021
- January 26 – 28, 2021

Early in 2021, you will hear from a rejuvenated and revitalized Mobilization Team across our network. The power and solidarity of having Canada’s flight attendants - all 15,000 of us from nine airlines across the country united as brothers and sisters under the CUPE Airline Division - is a power we have never experienced in our past.

As a final thought to close off 2020’s last WestJet Bargaining update:

It is no secret that we had hoped to present a Tentative Agreement by December 2020. The practical and economic realities of COVID-19, as well as the monumental task of resolving the outstanding issues remaining at the table, have forced the committee to prioritize presenting a Collective Agreement that meets our needs and protects our work and our jobs, rather than focusing strictly on that timeframe.

You have told us loud and clear what your priorities are, both prior to negotiations beginning, and daily since the pandemic has ravaged our industry. We are working hard to ensure those priorities are met, and to present you with a Tentative Agreement we are proud to recommend to you.

If you have any questions about the Collective Bargaining process, please contact your Mobilizing Team at: weare4070@cupe4070.ca.

In Solidarity,
Your CUPE 4070 Executive Team