Air Canada flight attendants will begin voting on their tentative agreement starting this Wednesday — and some analysts warn that mounting discontent over the proposed wage packages could tip the vote against it.
Over the past week, some cabin crew members have taken to social media to express dissatisfaction with the pay increase, even starting an online petition that has gained more than 4,800 signatures, calling for fair wages in case the agreement is voted down and moves to arbitration.
The new four-year contract includes total pay raises of 16 to 20 per cent. In the first year, Rouge employees and mainline staff with five years’ experience or less will receive a 12-per-cent raise, while more experienced mainline flight attendants will get eight per cent, followed by increases of three per cent, 2.5 per cent and 2.75 per cent in the subsequent years.
Air Canada considers 75 hours a month as full-time work and will pay a starting rate of $33.60 an hour under the new contract, which amounts to $2,520 a month. A mainline flight attendant will earn $48.15 an hour by halfway through their third year and $68.14 an hour by year 10.
“Many flight attendants are disappointed … the junior flight attendants at the end of this contract will have gotten a 20 per cent pay increase, which, for all intents and purposes, is still below the living wage required to effectively work and live in Toronto and Vancouver,” said John Gradek, a lecturer on aviation management at McGill University and a former Air Canada manager.
Gradek said he expects the flight attendants to reject the agreement.
The proposed wage package is now on the ballot in front of the 10,000 flight attendants, while other items, including improvements to pensions, benefits, and compensation for some ground work time, were finalized during a nine-hour overnight negotiation last Monday.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees told the Star that rejecting the wage package would not result in strike action but would instead be referred to arbitration.
“Because of their courage in walking a picket line, our members forced the company back to the table, with a better offer — except on wages,” the union said. “We will respect whatever decision is made by our members.”
A key gain for Air Canada flight attendants in this round of bargaining is pay for some ground duty time, including boarding and safety tasks, though some say it doesn’t go far enough.
They will receive 50 per cent of their hourly rate as ground pay for the hour before takeoff, rising to 70 per cent by the fourth year of the contract.
A flight attendant with 25 years at Air Canada told the Star that management justified not paying for ground duty by offering an hourly wage roughly double the federal minimum wage two decades ago — but base pay has only increased by $3 an hour since then.
The Star is not naming the employee as the company does not allow her to speak with the media.
“So the consensus is: either pay us a decent salary per hour, like in the past, or pay us for all of our hours worked at full pay,” she said, adding that most flight attendants she knows are vocal about voting no when the ballot opens on Wednesday.
Steven Tufts, an associate professor of labour at York University, said many flight attendants are comparing their offer to what Air Transat flight attendants and Air Canada pilots secured in their most recent bargaining rounds — a 30 per cent wage increase over five years and 42 per cent over four years.
But the pay raise offered by Air Transat came with no ground pay, he noted, even though the union asked for it.
Tufts said the Air Canada flight attendants’ union strategically chose to lock in ground pay and other benefits, allowing members to vote only on the wage increase, and agreed that the issue would go to arbitration if the vote failed.
“The arbitrator is very, very unlikely to go below what Air Canada already agreed to,” said Tufts. “So in this case, it almost makes sense to reject the agreement as it’s structured, because flight attendants have nothing to lose.
“It is still problematic that the ability of the government to send things to binding arbitration is always present in these processes,” he said, adding that this likely has put pressure on unions during illegal strikes and at the bargaining table.
Karine Huet, Air Canada’s director of service and organizer of the online petition, wrote in an open letter that flight attendants’ compensation does not reflect the dedication, risks, and sacrifices that come with the profession.
“We know our worth. We ask you to recognize it as well. Please make this right when we undoubtedly present our cases in front of the arbitrator.”
