On February 15, 2021, Thomas Brown from Menzies Aviation sent employment offers to those WestJet workers on lay off and those who lost their jobs due to outsourcing. Brown, a former WestJetter himself has joined Menzies Aviation in the role of Regional Manager of Western Canada

The letter offers WestJet workers the opportunity of employment at five Airports surrounding YVR: Abbotsford, Victoria, Nanaimo, Comox and Kamloops. WestJetters joining Menzies are eligible for the following salary structure: $15.20 for the equivalent to a CSA, $16.20 for the equivalent to an Ops Lead. There are some benefits but only to those who are working fulltime.

This employment offer makes wise business sense for Menzies Aviation; they get fully trained workers who can easily transition the work. On the other hand, the workers make all the sacrifice, and the pay will be $12.00-$15.00 less per hour with little to no benefits.

Onex WestJet saves money by outsourcing the work, Menzies charges Onex WestJet more per hour than it will pay the new workers and the worker makes less money than they did while working for WestJet. These actions are pure greed and typical when capitalism is left unchallenged by worker power in a union.

It is of concern that these locations surround YVR, and it is possible that once this work transitions successfully, both Onex WestJet and Menzies will pursue future expansion agreements.

The alternative approach with a Unifor collective agreement could have had several provisions in the agreement banning contracting out of jobs, strong layoff, and recall provisions in place, allowing workers to transfer to other sites to fulfil work commitments. In addition, all workers would have jobs to return to once the air transportation sector returns to regular capacity.

There is a real concern that without a Unifor collective agreement WestJet airports workers at the remaining four airports locations, YYZ, YYC, YEG and YVR could face a similar outsourcing fate.

Please take action to protect your future, talk to your coworkers about signing a Unifor Membership card, they can do this at join.unifor.org/federalcard

Billy O'Neill, Unifor
[email protected] | 416-605-1443

Quebec
Ada Zampini, Unifor
[email protected] | 514-701-6227

Prairies
Bruce Fafard, Unifor
[email protected] | 587-341-0945

British Columbia
Simon Lau, Unifor
[email protected] | 778-928-9630

Atlantic
Patrick Murray, Unifor
[email protected] | 506-850-7996