Concerns We Are Hearing

We know that many of you have approached your TAPS representatives to raise concerns about transparency, decision making, and the absence of a meaningful voice at WestJet. We are also hearing that members are being asked to give it a year before considering any alternative.

You should treat that message for what it is: a delay tactic.

What Is Happening While You Are Asked to Wait

While you are being told to pause, Onex continues its cost shedding strategy. Outsourcing expands. Positions are eliminated. Preparations continue for a future sale. These are not theoretical risks. They are observable patterns.

If you wait too long to secure the legal protections of a certified bargaining unit and a negotiated collective agreement, it may be too late once reductions directly impact your department. A union agreement is not retroactive. Protections must be in place before decisions are made.

Thousands of workers covered by the AEA and hundreds under the CCEA have told us they wish they had acted sooner. Delay benefits the employer. It does not strengthen your position.

The Record During COVID

You have recent experience to draw from. During the COVID reductions, TAPS did not secure enforceable protections. Many workers covered by TAPS were left contributing toward their own legal costs to pursue fair severance. That cannot be the model for the next crisis.

The Reductions Are Continuing

This is not distant history. We continue to hear of TAPS groups losing their jobs, first in December and again now. These are not isolated events. They reflect ongoing reductions happening without binding layoff language, negotiated severance, or recall rights that only a collective agreement can guarantee.

When protections are not in a collective agreement, they are discretionary. When rights are not enforceable, they are merely requests.

The COVID debacle should be a clear lesson. At a time when stability mattered, many of you faced reductions without the legal force of a certified bargaining union behind you. That experience should shape what you demand next.

What Real Protection Looks Like

Time should not slow your momentum. It should sharpen it.

If you want enforceable rights, binding layoff language, severance protections, job security clauses, and a real seat at the table, that only comes through certification and a collective agreement governed by federal labour law.

The choice is straightforward. Wait and hope. Or organize and secure.

We are ready when you can sign your card here: join.unifor.org/ws_taps

Billy O'Neill
Unifor National Representative, Organizing
416.605.1443
billy.oneill@unifor.org

Lucy Alessio
Unifor National Coordinator, Organizing
416.998.3189
lucy.alessio@unifor.org