2025 On Deck!
Hello Everyone,
I can hardly believe that the year 2024 is already coming to a close.
It’s been a rather eventful few months for the Air Canada bargaining committee ( ACBC).
Harold Bateman the Air Canada bargaining Committee Chairperson (Central region) accepted a position as Assistant to the president. The transition period was challenging, taxing and transformative.
I could never thank Harold enough for his guidance and support over the past 2.5 years. I truly wish him all the best in his new position.
The ACBC has welcomed two new additions:
Ada Zampini in the Eastern region (YUL and region) and Brett Grassam in the central region (YYZ and region ).They bring more that 50 years of combined union experience and have been involved in the Union as Vice president ( Ada) and Vice chair ( Brett ).
I wanted to take this opportunity to formally salute them and welcome them into the committee.
C1
There’s been a lot of c1 related questions. Introduced last year, the requirement was the completion of the entirety of the scheduled shift. Lates, R.O, partial or anything that would affect the integrity of the shift did preclude an agent from receiving a c1.I had a conversation with travel yesterday. They have now confirmed in writing that as long as the Company grants RO to a person who is already on shift , they will be receiving the appropriate C1 allotment.
Patterns
The union has voiced its opposition to alleged “patterns” identified by the Company. We still believe that we should be cognizant of what the Company might consider a pattern.
Some patterns are identified on specific days of the week. For example, out of 8 sick days 7 were on a Tuesday.
Calling in Before and /or after vacation or days off. The company believes that we might be intentionally booking off to prolong our time away.
Lastly calling in December, specifically around Christmas and new year.
We want to reiterate our position as a union that statistically the general population is more prone to sickness during the holidays season. We are also not in agreement with these alleged ‘patterns’. Ultimately The company is not to ask for doctors note unless we call in sick for 5 consecutive days. We shall not yield to any pressure to come to work if unwell.
Code of conduct
The Company has unveiled a new code of conduct:
https://www.aircanada.com/content/dam/aircanada/portal/documents/PDF/en/Code_of_Conduct.pdf
Please take time to read it. It is of the utmost importance. Code of conduct and attendance make the bulk of the discipline our members are subjected to.
Lastly, I wanted to thank you for breaking bread with us on the 19th. it’s always a treat having the opportunity to interact with each other. In this short newsletter I wanted to wish you all the merriest of Christmases and Happy Holidays. May 2025 be good to us.
In Solidarity and Iron focus
Soppo
S.G