CAW Deal

[Kip Powick]

CAW'S BUZZ HARGROVE: His union reached an 11th-hour deal with Air Canada

management last month that will help the insolvent airline iron out the last

wrinkles imposed by its financial backers.

CREDIT: Glenn Lowson, National Post

Roughly 1,300 job cuts and a two-year, 2.5% wage rollback make up elements

of the 11th-hour concessions deal reached last month between Air Canada and

the Canadian Auto Workers union.

The agreement, if ratified by the CAW's 4,900 members, will give the airline

$45.1-million in labour cost savings from the union. The deal was necessary

to meet a condition imposed by Air Canada's financial backers, Deutsche Bank

and GE Capital Aviation Services -- namely, an additional $200-million in

annual concessions from the unions in order to meet a $1.1-billion target

negotiated about a year ago.

The CAW was the last of Air Canada's seven unions to come to an agreement,

doing so hours before a court hearing that may have forced the company into

liquidation had no deal been reached.

According to a summary of the deal, the CAW has negotiated 1,300 job cuts,

through buyouts and enhanced retirement perks, that are to take place over

the next 18 months.

If the cuts are implemented, this would reduce the number of call-centre

employees and ticket agents at the Montreal airline to 3,500 from the

current 4,800. Moreover, it will be significantly down from the 6,800

employed in late 2002 months before Air Canada filed for bankruptcy

protection. CAW members will be eligible for buyouts that: provide three

weeks of pay per year of service for workers with up to nine years at Air

Canada; and four weeks' pay per year of service for workers with 10 or more

years on the job. The maximum that can be obtained under the buyout is one

year of salary to be paid over a 36-month period.

The annual pay scale for CAW members ranges from a low of $20,400 to a high

of $49,060.

As an added perk, some employees will be eligible for lifetime travel

passes. The eligible workers are those who are laid off and renounce their

right to be recalled should a job opening pop up.

The union has also agreed to a pay cut of 2.5% for the next 24 months. The

company will also be allowed to employ up to 200 students on a part-time,

temporary basis to fill in for vacationing workers during peak travel

periods, such as the summer.

However, in return, the insolvent company has tentatively agreed to pick up

expenses incurred by the union -- including legal and advisory fees -- as a

result of the airline filing for bankruptcy protection on April 1 of last

year.

The CAW was the only union, to date, that did not receive that assurance

from the airline, labour sources indicate.

Payment is conditional on approval from the airline's court-appointed

monitor.

Union members are expected to vote on the deal on June 17. Ratification

votes at the other unions are also expected in mid-June, as the company has

been unable to forward details of all labour deals as quickly as initially

promised.

Unions such as the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace

Workers, for example, want to ensure other labour groups gave up what was

expected before taking its deal to its members.

© National Post 2004

[Kip Powick]

CAW...GTAA.....at odds

The union representing Air Canada's reservation agents, embroiled in a fight over airport wheelchair services, is threatening to throw a wrench into the airline's restructuring by indefinitely postponing a vote to ratify its recent cost-cutting agreement.

The Canadian Auto Workers, which represents about 6,400 Air Canada reservation agents, charges that on Friday, the carrier informed its executives that the Greater Toronto Airport Authority was planning to wrest control of wheelchair handling at Pearson International Airport.

If the GTAA follows through on its threat, it might mean 75 CAW members would lose their jobs, the union says.

"They did this to us with the golf carts, and they aren't going to do it again," CAW official Gary Fane said in an interview. "We will postpone the ratification vote at least in Toronto and maybe across the country.

"It's a big deal because the landlord doesn't usually tell the tenant what the conditions of work are going to be."

Fane said the GTAA's actions amount to "stealing CAW jobs."

According to terms of financing agreements struck with Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank AG and the airline financing division of General Electric Co., Air Canada needs its unions to concede $200 million worth of pay and benefits cuts because the $1.1 billion worth of concessions they agreed to a year ago have not materialized.

The CAW's threat not to ratify could threaten, or at least delay, the airline's restructuring.

The 1,600 Air Canada employees who are members of the CAW and work in Toronto had been scheduled to vote on $45.3 million in cuts next Monday and Tuesday.

Scott Anderson, a spokesperson for the airport authority, said the GTAA is taking over wheelchair services because it would mean better service for passengers. Currently, GTAA staff members hand off wheelchair-bound passengers to Air Canada employees after they check in at the airport.

"This is an efficiency thing," Anderson said. "It's one-on-one service. Instead of handing off to another staff member, it's more efficient to have one person stay with the passenger all the way through to the plane. We've sorted this out with the company."

A precedent for the move may have already been established, Anderson said, since the GTAA handles the use of golf carts — called surreys — to move passengers and their luggage through the airport.

Anderson said after the GTAA takes over the CAW's tasks tomorrow, it expects to have as many as 20 employees at any given time available to help passengers in wheelchairs. A spokesperson for Globe Ground North America Inc., which now handles aircraft cleaning and janitorial services at Pearson, said taking over wheelchair operations would result in 200 new jobs at the Mississauga company.

Air Canada spokesperson Laura Cooke said the airline's preference "is to continue offering this services directly to our customers."

However, even if the GTAA takes control of wheelchair services, Cooke said the airline doesn't "envisage an impact on staffing."

[deicer]

Morning Kip

The wheelchair issue smacks of a cash grab again by the GTAA. They want to run every aspect of the airport and aren't too shy to be blatent about it. They will suck every available penny from any form of revenue stream that they can.

Just like in the States, they will charge big bucks for the service.

It's just like the baggage carts now. They charge a buck, and only refund a quarter. All I can say is T2 is littered with carts because it's back to the fact that it isn't worth the walking to return them for only a quarter. Not even the cheapest employees are doing it anymore.

Capitalism at its finest!

HAGD...

Iceman

[Dork]

Miracle Flights:

Toronto: Flight embarking needs 10 wheelchairs and 2 golf carts. (free of charge)

Miami: Same Flight disembarking nothing needed, passengers healed by Air Canada inflight ...( Note: charge to be paid in USD to MIA airport for a wheelchair)

Conclusion: They must be "Miracle Flights" so.. maybe we should all go to MIA and get healed.

Back to the Bunker

[deicer]

Don't you know that when you fly to MIA, as I did last month and correct me if I'm wrong, there is always a bit of turbulence about an hour and a half into the flight.

I believe it is the hand of God giving the aircraft a shake and creating the miracle that you mention.

Happens every time.....

Unless it's the big money charge by the Skycaps down there?????

On a related note, the GTAA may be responsible for saving the Provincial Fiberals big bucks in medicare if they videotape the pax getting off and not needing a wheelchair because they have to pay for it!

Iceman

[Sky High]

Miracle Flights:

Toronto: Flight embarking needs 10 wheelchairs and 2 golf carts. (free of charge)

Miami: Same Flight disembarking nothing needed, passengers healed by Air Canada inflight ...( Note: charge to be paid in USD to MIA airport for a wheelchair)

Conclusion: They must be "Miracle Flights" so.. maybe we should all go to MIA and get healed. 

Now theres an idea. With a bit of planning we could almost solve the whole healthcare issue. And AC could make a whole whack of bucks providing the flights.

[Steam Driven]

"However, in return, the insolvent company has tentatively agreed to pick up

expenses incurred by the union -- including legal and advisory fees -- as a

result of the airline filing for bankruptcy protection on April 1 of last

year."

Glad to see the Union will not incur any hardship or cost's involved in their employer's circumstances... They're free to sue and hinder at their leisure and seek recompense...

What's the old quote - "If you are not part of the solution, you're part of the problem"...

[Sky High]

The more I see about the deals being made by the unions the more I have to wonder if they are regretting turning down Victor Li's offer. Of course you will never get them to admit they might have made a mistake there.

I'll bet there are some soon to be laid off employees that would have something to say about that though. I'm curious as to how the unions can explain the rationale behind it???

[Guest eastcoast]

If Agents will no longer be used for Wheelchair assist, then does that mean that Agents will be available for other things. Meeting all flights at gates when they arrive, with a smile on their faces comes to mind

[moeman]

I hope that if they win this little battle, those who bid to push the chairs don't bitch about having to do so.

I'm really fed up with the "Can they walk to the top of the bridge?" comment every flight. Just bring the damned chair to the aircraft door for cryin' out loud! Is it that difficult to roll it down the ramp when you come to meet the flight, just in case? It takes twice as long to walk down, ask the question, walk back up to get the chair, then come back at the end. If the chair is there, at least we can get them settled in for you.

If you say they can't walk that far, then you get the "Well I'm all alone here and I can't push it up the ramp so I'll have to wait for assistance because the ramp is too steep because the airport authority is out to get us and I have a bad back and I'm not carrying their bag for them because I'm not a porter and can you believe they're laying more of us off we're so short-staffed already and you're lucky I was even here to meet the flight because we're sooooo overworked and if you think we're going to take a $10,000 pay cut you're put of your mind because we already gave up enough the last time and Robert Milton is...." speech until you end up doing it yourself just to stop the bellyaching .

[errbus]

There is an even more galling facet to this thread. I have been told by several CAW members that wheelchair duty is a BID position. To put it another way, the agents that continually ask if the pax can walk to the top of the bridge or states that they are unable to push the wheelchair with someone actually in it, BID (ie REQUESTED) that job. Must be nice to be awarded a job then not have to do it eh. Incredible.

[Fido]

...or states that they are unable to push the wheelchair with someone actually in it, ....

I had a solution to that at the station I worked at:

Even the guys would call down to the ramp to get some 'muscle' to push the chairs up the bridge.

We had some young ladies working on the ramp at that time, so we would send them. The sales people quit phoning for 'muscle'.

[newgirl]

In my small station , the gate agents are expected to do the wheelchairs. Some flights have as many as 5 or 6 and only 1 or 2 really need the service.

Weighing in at 120lbs , it is very dificult pushing a man who weighs 200lbs or more up the bridge ramp. A few times I have slipped pushing up the ramp and thought that both of us would end up through the wall and out onto the ramp. Generally we try to have 2 agents meet the flight and do a push and pull up the ramp.

Thankfully our ramp workers are very helpful when they see the size of some of these people and push the chair up for us. On other occasions , the back end crew and even the front end crew have offered to help us. We really appreciate the offers.

I am in agreement that we start charging for the service as many will not pay the 5.00 or whatever price attached. Most use the service to get through Can. customs faster as they are put through separate lineups... which take less time. It has become an abuse of a service originally offered for the people who really need it!