CUPE fighting "less F/As onboard"

[Kip Powick]

The federal government's bid to allow Air Canada and other airlines to pare the number of on-board flight attendants would compromise passenger safety, according to a shocking and risky advertising campaign being rolled out by the union representing Air Canada's flight attendants.One of the union's newspaper ads features a picture of passengers spilling out of the burning Air France jet. An accompanying caption reads: "Passenger Safety at Risk."

"A full crew of 10 highly trained and fast acting flight attendants saved everyone on Air France Flight 358 after it crashed in Toronto this summer," the ad says. "Even though flight attendants are safety professionals who save lives, Ottawa is poised to cut the required minimum number of flight attendants by up to 25 per cent.

"With fewer hands on deck, do you like these odds?"

Transport Canada spokesperson Lucie Vignola said the federal government is considering changing flight attendant requirements to bring Canada in line with other countries that belong to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

For instance, Vignola said, both the U.S. and France require one flight attendant for every 50 passengers.

"The union is just trying to keep jobs," she said.

But Jim Thompson, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents Air Canada's 6,700 flight attendants, said, "This is about the last line of defence for safety and security issues being cut by up to 25 per cent."

Currently, Canadian law requires airlines to have one flight attendant on board for every 40 passengers. Transport Canada is considering a move to change that ratio to one attendant for every 50 passengers, although the ratio differs for different types of aircraft.

On the 297-passenger Airbus 340, for instance — the plane used on Air France flight 358 — eight flight attendants, a one to 40 ratio, would be required because the wide-body plane has eight exits. But an Airbus A320, with a maximum 140 passengers, could have three flight attendants, down from the current minimum of four, a 25 per cent reduction, said Thompson.

Several advertising industry executives questioned CUPE's decision to publish the ads — particularly as Air Canada and other airlines enter the busy holiday travelling season.

"Why remind people about to buy a ticket that these horrible things can happen when you do fly?" said Randy Stein, a partner with Grip Ltd., a Toronto ad agency. "It's a curious decision."

Stein said while many passengers feel empathy for flight attendants, who "deal with planes full of cranky passengers," the ads could backfire by making passengers "feel manipulated."

For Air Canada, the country's largest carrier, the ads mark the latest sign of tension between management and labour. Air Canada is desperate to cut costs, and has gone so far as to strip paint and primer from one jet to make it lighter and save fuel.

Air Canada spokesperson Laura Cooke said that just because Transport Canada reduces staffing minimums, the carrier wouldn't necessarily reduce the number of on-board flight attendants. "It's really going to depend on the aircraft type and the route," she said, adding that the airline exceeds the regulator's requirements on some routes.

Vignola said any changes to the flight-attendant requirements wouldn't happen for months. "In no way is this imminent."

The ads are initially scheduled to run in The Hill Times, an Ottawa newspaper aimed at federal politicians and lobbyists.

CUPE may later advertise in mainstream daily newspapers and on the Internet, Thompson said.

CUPE's Thompson insisted the campaign is based on safety concerns. Transport Canada decides whether to cut flight attendant staffing requirements based on "theoretical paper exercises called risk analysis.

"What they should be doing is waiting for the Transportation Safety Board to finish its study of the Air France crash," Thompson said. "It's a real live example and we think there's a concrete link between the fact that there were 10 flight attendants on board and the survival of all the passengers and crew."

In a Nov. 9 memo circulated to Air Canada flight attendants, CUPE officials argues that the attendants "are safety and security professionals who save lives in the event of an evacuation or attempted terrorist attack."

The memo points out that there were 10 flight attendants on board the doomed Air France Airbus 340 for 297 passengers, which represented a one to 30 ratio, exceeding the French requirement. "Only eight flight attendants would be required on a Canadian carrier under the proposed Transport Canada rules on such wide body aircraft."

The issue of flight attendant staffing on Air Canada flights first surfaced in May, when the carrier and CUPE clashed over plans to cut the number of flight attendants on flights between Canada and Europe.

In a May 5 letter to the union obtained by the Toronto Star, Air Canada official Susan Welscheid said Air Canada would consider in coming months expanding the cost-cutting move to include other international routes, such as flights to Central and South America and Asia.

[CD]

Also disussed here before at the following link:

Air Passenger Safety at Risk, ...has this been discussed here?