There’s a simple reason the air transportation industry has played such an important role in Canadian society - moving millions of people and billions in goods and services around the world every year.
It’s you, and because of that you deserve better than we have seen from WestJet during this pandemic.
Canada’s world-leading airline industry was built on your hard work and your skills as frontline airport workers. An airline’s success is not based on its planes. It’s based on the services you provide. That’s why airline unions, including Unifor, have negotiated collective agreements with strict recall rights. You built the airline. It owes you some loyalty for doing so.
We are not seeing any of that right now from WestJet. Just this week, frontline workers were told that all of a sudden, the plans in place for how to handle layoffs and leaves of absence were being suspended – and you now have just over a week to decide how you will survive the pandemic financially. And six months from now? They’ll decide then. Or maybe not. And things might change again in the meantime.
That’s not good enough, and not how things work in unionized workplaces. We all get that the pandemic has added an unprecedented volatility to our lives. Health and economic outlooks seem to change daily. Government programs are constantly evolving. Every workplace, union or non-union, is dealing with this.
The difference is that with a union you have a set of negotiated rules that form the basis of how the employer will respond to all this rapid change, and you have a voice in the workplace as the fallout from the pandemic – or any other shock to the industry – unfolds and new plans need to be put in place.
With no union in your corner to work with the employer on the implications of its evolving plans, you are left at the mercy of the employer’s volatile decision making – and the company is free to use the pandemic as an excuse to get rid of workers it no longer wants, such as higher paid and long-term staff, and to use the government programs as an incentive to achieve these ends.
With negotiated recall rights, you have protections against such moves. Recall rights mean that when people are laid off due to a downturn in the industry, the very people who built the airline are called back in an orderly and predictable way, based on seniority.
Unifor represents nearly 16,000 workers in the air transportation industry including pilots, customer service representatives, air traffic controllers and flight service representatives, aircraft mechanics, airport workers and flight attendants.
The airline industry has proven resilient to economic and health shocks, including pandemics, in the past. As you know better than anyone, these shocks can lead to periodic layoffs, and layoff and recall rights are meant to manage such periods.
For example, Unifor airport workers at Air Canada have the right in their Collective Agreement that provides to be recalled to their jobs for at least five years – longer if they have been with the company for more than five years.
If a Unifor member at Air Canada is on layoff, the airline cannot hire from the street until all laid off employees with recall rights have been brought back to work. This is a recognition of their role in building the airline.
Employees should not face further uncertainty about returning to work. They should have peace of mind in knowing that at some point in the future they will return to their jobs. It’s the least they should expect from the company they built.
The AEA once again has failed to build in good language to protect your rights. Downturns in the airline industry are to be expected, and it is a real failing of the AEA to have not ensured that you had proper recall rights. You deserve a union that will stand up for you.
Remember, as well, to continue to check unifor.org/westjet for updates to our EI factsheets. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to reach out to one of us.
Thank you for your interest in joining Unifor and gaining a voice in your workplace and your industry during this tumultuous time in the airline industry.
By taking this first step of signing an online Unifor Membership Card, and paying the $5 required under federal labour law, you are standing up for yourself, your family and your community.
Simply click the Join Unifor link to sign a digital membership card. You will then be given the option to pay the required $5 by PayPal – a secure online payment system. Unifor will never get your credit card information. An email will also be sent to our lead WestJet Organizer, Billy O’Neill. The PayPal link also gives you the option to pay directly, without using the PayPal option, should you prefer.
*** (note that some fields are mandatory and you must sign the card with a signature using your finger or the pen option on touch screen) ***
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to reach out.
Ontario
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
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