Greetings from Unifor
Welcome to Unifor! I hope that this can be the start of a great conversation about your workplace rights. We'll be sending you some facts, documents and tidbits that will explain what a union is all about.
Unifor has received our interim certification from the Canada Industrial Relations Board as your official bargaining unit representation after most WestJetters signed union membership cards in YVR and YYC.
Upon receiving the certification, we sent a request to your employer for your complete contact information as required by law. Today's email, dated June 7, 2021, will mark the first communication to the entire bargaining unit.
Outstanding issues with the labour Board
A few job classifications are under dispute at the labour board and will be decided in short order. Unifor's position is that these jobs should be part of the bargaining unit; however, WestJet believes they should be excluded for several reasons. If you work in one of these classifications and would like to reach out to me in confidence to discuss your roles and responsibilities, please do.
The positions are:
Airport Learning Coordinator
Daily Duty Coordinator
IROP Coordinator
Turnaround Coordinator
Workforce Coordinator
Quality Advisor
National Staff Representation and Membership Meetings
Unifor has assigned Leslie Dias, Director, Airlines Sector at Unifor as your National Staff representative. In addition to Leslie, you will be supported by a team of folks who are determined to help you get familiar with all Unifor has to provide you. In the coming weeks, we will hold a General Membership meeting to introduce you to Unifor and answer any questions you may have.
Nominations & Elections
As we prepare to transition Westjetters in YVR and YYC into the union, we will start with nominations for the bargaining committee.
Your bargaining committee will consist of three members elected from YYC and two members elected from YVR. Your bargaining committee will work with your local membership and Unifor National Representative to achieve your first tentative agreement through bargaining sessions with your employer, which will be brought back to the entire membership for ratification.
We will conduct the bargaining committee elections with an electronic vote sent out via email.
The Bargaining Committee Election nomination period will open at 18:00 PT today, Tuesday, June 7, 2021, and remain open until 18:00 PT, June 14, 2021.
All nominations must be received by this time, and anyone wishing to put their name forward can send me an email directly to [email protected] and indicate that you want to stand for election for the bargaining committee. I will acknowledge receipt of all nominations with a reply.
Workplace Union Representation
Unifor has been in regular contact with WestJet Labour Relations and looks forward to working with your employer to ensure your workplace rights are respected. Unifor has raised your concern about attending discipline meetings with the employer without union representation. Until we negotiate our first collective agreement that determines the process around discipline meetings and union representation, we have reached an agreement of process.
The agreed-upon solution will allow us to utilize our elected bargaining committee members to support workers during these meetings. In addition, if any meeting is to happen that deals with termination, a Unifor staff member will be present at that meeting.
Why is the AEA still emailing me?
We, too, were shocked that the AEA used the employer email system to continue to reach out to you in YVR and YYC. We have addressed this with WestJet, and they have apologized on behalf of the AEA and told us it was an error and it would not happen again. To be clear, WestJetters in YYZ and YEG will still receive communications from the AEA until they sign enough union membership cards for Unifor to apply to the labour board for certification. We know our friends in Toronto and Edmonton are actively seeking the strong professional representation of Unifor and look forward to welcoming them.
What's next?
In the coming weeks and months, Unifor host several educational meetings to help us get to know each other a bit more as we move forward with elections and focus on bargaining a collective agreement. We will do a workplace survey of each member to engage you to see what your priorities are for negotiations.
I want to make sure you know that you can reach out to me at any time: if you have questions or want to talk about how things are going, give me a shout!
What about YYZ and YEG?
We are happy to report that membership cards arrive each day from your colleagues in YYZ and YEG. We hope to welcome them into our Unifor family soon and have them join you as you build your future with solid leadership and representation.
If you haven't talked to your coworkers at YYC and YEG, let them know they can sign a Unifor Membership card today. It is time for them to join you at the bargaining table; they can do this at join.unifor.org/federalcard
Billy O’Neill
Unifor National Representative Organizing
416.605.1443
[email protected]
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