UNION COURTS WESTJET FLIGHT ATTENDANTS

Meetings held with flight attendants

A unionization drive aimed at disgruntled flight attendants is taking place at WestJet, the Calgary-based airline that has been proudly non-union since its inception in 1996.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said it has dedicated a full-time organizer to the campaign and has already held three formal meetings with flight attendants in Calgary.

It plans to hold additional meetings with WestJet flight attendants in Toronto and Vancouver in the near future.

Ricardo Miranda, national representative and member organizer for CUPE, said the union was approached during the spring by a handful of flight attendants who believe WestJet needs a union.

While this isn’t the first time a large national union has set its sights on the airline (CUPE itself tried, and failed, to unionize WestJet flight attendants in 2006), Miranda said he believes there is some momentum this time around.

“We’re very happy with the way things are going,” he said. “In previous attempts, we have never gotten as far a s we a re right now ... None of them have come as far as this one, and none of them have been as employeedriven as the one we have right now.”

While it’s clear WestJet employees feel a strong sense of pride in the company, Miranda said, there’s also a sense among flight attendants that their voices aren’t being heard.

“They want to have a say, basically,” he said. “The flight attendants feel that their concerns need to be heard in a way that is meaningful.”

WestJet’s vice-president of Inflight, Tyson Matheson, said he believes the proportion

Ironing out the wrinkles

The flight attendants feel that their concerns need to be heard RICARDO MIRANDA

WITH CUPE

of flight attendants who have been speaking with CUPE is very small.

Still, the company takes the unionization drive very seriously.

“We don’t take any of these situations lightly,” Matheson said, adding he believes that if employees are frustrated, it’s because there are a lot of changes taking place at WestJet right now.

The a i rl i ne recently launched its new regional carrier, Encore, and it is also preparing to become a “multibase” operation.

Currently, all WestJet flight attendants are headquartered in Calgary, but in 2014 the carrier will designate Vancouver and Toronto as additional crew bases — raising questions among flight attendants about how they will be affected by the move.

“There’s a lot of questions and uncertainty among some of the flight attendants,” Matheson acknowledged.

“It’s a matter of making sure we’re being clear with our flight attendants, that we’re visible, and that we’re available to answer any questions.”

While WestJet is not unionized, its workers do have an employee organization called PACT, (Pro-Active Communications Team).

PACT chair Antonio Faiola said the organization does many of the things a union would do (including having its own version of a grievance procedure), but without the red tape.

“From an employee perspective, there’s an advantage to having our own association,” Faiola said. “We feel that if there are concerns or there are things we need to handle, we’re not reliant on an external party. We can just go directly to where we need to go to solve the issues — and that’s to the senior level of the organization.”

Robert Kokonis, an independent aviation analyst with AirTrav Inc., said it’s not surprising WestJet is encountering another unionization attempt as it grows.

“When you’re a small carrier with 20 or 30 planes, it’s easier to keep a tighter hold on that special bond with employees and be directly engaged with them.

“As you grow larger, it is more challenging,” Kokonis said.

Still, he questions whether WestJet employees — most of whom own stock in the airline because of its employee share purchase program — really want to go down the unionization road.

“The competitive landscape these days in Canada remains very intense, and (WestJet’s) competitors — Air Canada and Air Transat in particular — have not been standing still ... They’ve been cutting their costs,” Kokonis said. “So is this the right time (for WestJet) to be looking at essentially bumping up their costs? I’m not sure it’s the right time.”

CUPE needs 50 per cent of WestJet’s approximately 2,800 flight attendants to sign mem- bership cards to automatically certify a union, or 35 per cent to trigger a staff-wide vote.

CUPE represents more than 10,000 flight attendants employed by Air Canada, Air Transat, Calm Air, Canadian North, Canjet, Cathay Pacific, First Air and Sunwing.