Dear Members,

WestJet Encore Collective Bargaining took place from May 11 - 13, 2021, via Zoom between the Union and the Company. The work of your Elected Bargaining Committee, including Local 4070 President, Vice President, and CUPE National Bargaining Representatives, continued. Last week can be characterized as productive, and positive. Both sides appeared to demonstrate sincere regard towards understanding the other’s concerns and points of view. As a result, meaningful movement was achieved on both of the most significant articles towards reaching a Tentative Agreement (TA) on the overall Collective Agreement (CA): Scheduling and Pay Administration.

The Scheduling Article had been passed between the parties during our previous round of negotiations multiple times. This continued as we started the week of bargaining. Both sides made significant strides towards efficiently coming to an agreement. Scheduling was signed in TA. The week continued with other smaller Articles being signed in TA, as well as negotiations on the other large and significant article: Pay Administration. In essence: how your pay is calculated, including minimum daily credit, per diems, day and trip RIGS (Ratios In Guarantee), and many other issues related to pay calculations and payouts.

In total, 8 (eight) articles, and 1 (one) Letter of Understanding (related to the Scheduling Article) were signed off in Tentative Agreement. They are: 
 

● Discrimination or Harassment

● Compassionate Transfers

● Scheduling 

    ○ Letter of Understanding (LOU) No. 1 (related to Scheduling Article) 

● Union Communication 

● Hostage, Internment, or Death 

● Pay Administration 

● Charter Operations 

● Ad Hoc Assignments 

To provide the Membership with perspective in terms of where we are at in the Collective Bargaining process:
 

Following completion of TAs for each of the planned forty-seven (47) articles that will comprise the WestJet Encore proposed Collective Agreement, the final step prior to the conclusion of negotiations will be the bargaining of the all-encompassing monetary and financial package. Essentially, this will be the negotiation of anything throughout all of the tentatively agreed to articles that is related to monetary or financial matters. These articles have been negotiated in principle, with specific dollar or cost amounts that have been left “TBD” or ‘to be determined’. This is common practice in negotiations of first Collective Agreements following union certification. All TBD references will have their specific value negotiated in the final monetary package. 

The Committee, and your CUPE 4070 Executive wishes to assure you - we believe that we are well on the way towards presenting Membership with a Tentative Agreement in 2021. Having now completed negotiations on ‘Scheduling’ and ‘Pay Administration’, we feel very good about where we are in this process overall.

The next round of Bargaining for the WestJet Encore Collective Agreement is scheduled for May 25 - 27, 2021. We will update you again following these negotiations.

Bargaining dates are secured through the summer:

June 21 - 24, 2021

July 13 - 15, 2021

August 17 - 19, 2021

August 31 - September 2, 2021

September 14 - 16, 2021

September 28 - 30, 2021

Should you have any questions regarding the bargaining process, please contact us at: weare4070@cupe4070.ca.

 
In Solidarity,
Your CUPE 4070 WestJet Encore Bargaining Committee