It’s a cruel reality of the industry: some of the toughest and most important parts of a flight attendant’s job aren’t even paid. Whether it’s doing pre-flight safety checks, assisting passengers with special needs, or dealing with unruly passengers during ground delays – there is so much work that flight attendants are forced to do for free because of an unfair, outdated industry practice.
But being a flight attendant isn’t a volunteer position. In Canada, in 2023, there’s no excuse. If a flight attendant is in uniform, at work, performing work-related duties, they should be getting paid. Full stop.
CUPE’s Airline Division, representing 18,500 flight attendants at nine different airlines, has been standing together to tell the federal government and the airlines themselves that unpaid work won’t fly any more.
In fact, flight attendants represented by CUPE at PasCan have already negotiated strong language into their contract so they’re paid for boarding and delays.
CUPE’s Airline Division also launched a formal petition to the House of Commons in June, which received over 17,000 signatures, calling on the federal government to close loopholes in the Canada Labour Code that allow airlines to exploit their employees and force them to work for free. The federal government has until November 5, 2023 to issue its formal response.
The path to ending unpaid work in this industry won’t be an easy one, but it will surely be easier if we all pull together.
If we stand alone as individuals, this unfair, abusive industry practice may never end.
But with CUPE, we’ll be part of a strong group of flight attendant unions, and together we will end unpaid work in our industry.
Sign your card today to join CUPE, Canada’s flight attendant union.