Parliament Hill was a buzz last week with CUPE flight attendants from nine different airlines engaging in a day of action to raise awareness about unpaid work in the airline industry.

On the eve of International Flight Attendant Day, flight attendants leafletted and talked with morning commuters, held meetings with MPs and Senators from all major parties, and held a news conference with NDP leader Jagmeet Singh to take aim at the lack of action from the federal government to remedy the issue of unpaid work.

“Abusive industry practices thrive in the darkness, so we are here to shine a light, so that airline executives can no longer hide in the dark,” said Wesley Lesosky, President of CUPE’s Airline Division.

Our companies may compete against each other for market share, but as flight attendants, we have a lot to gain by working together to improve industry standards. Together, we are changing minds on Parliament Hill and getting that much closer to ending the abuse of unpaid work in our industry. We love our jobs, but we aren’t volunteers!

You can see photos of the day of action here.

If you haven’t already, sign your union card here today!

Porter pilots join cabin crew in journey for union representation

By now you have probably seen the news that a union drive is underway for pilots at Porter, with the Air Line Pilots Association.

It’s an exciting moment, as another key group of workers at Porter begins their journey to form a union and expand their rights at work. We want to congratulate the pilots and wish them the best!

You might be thinking: pilots already have very strong compensation and they received their benchmarking pay raises months ago. But the pilots also understand that things can and should always be better, and getting the respect and the strong voice they deserve at work starts with forming a union.

And it’s the same story for cabin crew.

Like cabin crew, pilots want our company to succeed.

Like cabin crew, pilots have serious concerns about their working conditions.

Like cabin crew, the pilots are looking to strengthen their position with the company.

We don’t have everything in common with pilots – but on the things that really matter, we can gain a lot by supporting each other in our shared goal of better compensation and better working conditions at our airline.

Now, the race is on. Who will be the first group at Porter to certify? Ready, set, go!

Sign your card union card today, and let your friends know you’re signing your card too.

If you’re receiving this message, it’s because there’s a strong chance you’ve already signed your union card to help build a strong union for cabin crew at Porter.

If so, that’s awesome. But the job’s not done yet!

As more and more Porter cabin crew sign their union cards every week, we wanted to send along a few tips and reminders for those long-haulers who might have signed their cards a while back. Here we go…

1. Confirm that you have actually signed your card and paid the federally-mandated $5 CIRB application fee. Email us at porter@cupe.ca to confirm.
2. Bring a plus-one (or two)! Everything’s better when you can bring a friend along, so why not talk to two friends who are thinking about signing their card or who you know have been putting it off. The faster people sign their cards, the sooner we can get to work strengthening our wages and our rights at work.
3. Remember it’s best to sign your card during breaks – not on the aircraft.
4. Know your rights! Federal law protects your right to talk to your coworkers about joining a union (but it’s best to do this on breaks or off the aircraft). Federal law also prohibits your employer from threatening or intimidating any employee who seeks to join or form a union. Contact an organizer at porter@cupe.ca if you believe your employer is threatening or intimidating you or your coworkers.

As always, you can get more info and sign your card at porter.cupe.ca/sign-a-card.

Porter talks a lot about benchmarking and how they work with the FOAG committee. But in reality, changes to our wages and working conditions only happen if and when the company wants them to.

Benchmarking, in other words, is Porter’s practice of picking and choosing items from collective agreements negotiated by flight attendants at other airlines, and selectively applying them at Porter according to what’s best for the company – but not necessarily according to what’s best for cabin crew.

For example, Porter looks to Air Canada to benchmark things like 24-hour reserve, but they would never use Air Canada as a benchmark for wages. (Side note: if Porter is looking for a new benchmark for wages, perhaps they should benchmark Air Transat, where CUPE flight attendants recently negotiated a new starting wage of $39.21 per hour in November 2024.)

What works for cabin crew at other airlines may not work for cabin crew at Porter.

That is precisely why Porter cabin crew need and deserve a collective agreement of our own. We need and deserve to set our own terms, using our own independent research (which we’ll get as part of CUPE, with a dedicated airline sector researcher). We deserve to chart our own path.

Rather than following standards set at other airlines, that the company picks and chooses as it pleases, we should be setting the standard – for ourselves and for our whole industry.

With a union, we can negotiate better wages and a better quality of life.

With a union, we can be industry leaders – instead of industry followers.

Sign your union card today!

Watch this special message for Porter Cabin Crew from CUPE’s National President Mark Hancock.

CUPE has 40 years experience as Canada’s flight attendant union, and together we can make sure that you, the cabin crew who keep this industry in the air, share in your airline’s success and have a stronger say and a bigger paycheck at the end of a long duty day.

Sign your card today!

With so many folks reaching out to learn more about CUPE we thought this would be the perfect time for another info session. You are invited to join us on Zoom April 29th at 13:30EST. We are thrilled that we will be joined by CUPE’s Airline Division President Wesley Lesosky. Wesley is an Air Canada flight attendant, a longstanding leader for flight attendants, and a national voice on ending unpaid work in the airline industry.

This will be an opportunity to learn about CUPE, the process of forming a union for Porter cabin crew, and to get your questions answered. You can also learn about how you can join the Unify Porter campaign to help make positive change in your workplace.

Send us an email at porter@cupe.ca for Zoom login info.

April 29^th, 2024, 13:30EST-15:00 EST

All workers covered by a collective agreement are involved in bargaining. Through a union, workers elect a bargaining committee. The bargaining committee sits across the negotiating table from the employer. The employer side is usually made up of lawyers and HR representatives. The union’s bargaining committee receives direction on workers’ bargaining priorities in a number of ways. Before the union’s bargaining committee prepares its proposals, workers are sent a survey, asking them about workplace issues and problems they may be facing due to their working conditions.  

Workers can voice their concerns to their union at any time, through grievances, at meetings or just by talking in the workplace. The more workers are involved in communicating with their union, the more their concerns will be brought to the bargaining table.  

Workers can campaign around making significant changes to the collective agreement, such as the current campaign around unpaid work launched by many unionized flight attendants. Workers’ demands for better working conditions make their way to the bargaining committee and then get proposed to the employer at the negotiating table.    

Through these methods, workers voices are heard at the bargaining table.  

Ready to start building your union? Sign your union card today.

Bargaining is the process where workers (through their union) and their employer negotiate over the terms of employment. The terms of employment are contained in the collective agreement which governs the workplace and must be followed by workers and the employer. The collective agreement stipulates things such as wages, working conditions, scheduling, sick days and benefits.

The length of the collective agreement is also negotiated between the workers and the employer. When a collective agreement is nearing expiry, then the two sides prepare to negotiate its renewal. This is an opportunity for workers to make improvements to their working conditions based on their experience with the previous collective agreement. Both sides come to the bargaining table with proposed changes to the collective agreement and negotiate over the differences until they reach a deal.

When the employer agrees to the deal and the workers democratically vote in favour of it, then the collective agreement is renewed for the agreed upon length.

Unlike the FOAG, a collective agreement is a legal document that both parties have to follow. This prevents your employer from making unilateral changes to your working conditions. While you may have elected cabin crew on the FOAG, at the end of the day your employer still has 100% of the decision-making power and they can override the committee’s suggestions. By forming your union, you can have a say in your working conditions and ensure that your voices are heard.

Ready to get one step closer to bargaining? Sign your union card today

You might be wondering: how does a union represent all workers during the bargaining process?

Some unions represent different workers’ job classifications, worksites, shifts etc. With these differences come different priorities about what workers want to achieve in bargaining.

In your case, you are in the process of building a new union at Porter, so you have the ability to build a union that represents the different needs of cabin crew. When you build your union, you create by-laws that govern how the union operates. In creating your by-laws, you can ensure diverse job classification and base representation in your union executive. For example, you can create bylaws that ensure your bargaining committee is comprised of workers from various locations and classifications to ensure fair representation for everyone in the workplace, and you can create committees for representing workers at different bases who will inform the executive about specific issues.

If you want to see diversity represented in your union structures, you are in a unique position to build those structures from scratch.  

By building a new union, you can ensure that all members, regardless of classification, base, aircraft type, etc. will have their voice heard at the bargaining table when it is time to negotiate better working conditions for all Porter cabin crew.

Ready to start building your union? Sign your union card today