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Westjet Lobbies Against Ac Pension Extension


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How much has / does WJ spend on lawyers, fines and awards defending against allegations of language abuse?

Okay, I'll bite, since you're asking how much WJ pays then how much has AC paid? If it's worth pointing it must be significant.

ne c'est pas?

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You've just demonstrated your ignorance of the Official Languages Act. It's not about a few bilingual agents or f/a s. Everything has to be in two languages....

It's a not "rallying cry".....it's a cost disadvantage. A big one!

I don't believe that is correct today. Many legal documents were being translated but if I'm not mistaken much of the routine make-work translations are not being done any more. As for the cost, at its peak I was told that the cost of running a bilingual operation was at most $20 million per year and of this amount, a lot would have been required anyway, whether or not there is ACPPA.

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We have yet to receive a copy of our new collective agreement as it can't be issued until the lawyers translate every clause into French.

I hope you are not implying that it should not be translated in French for the benefit of its French speaking employees. Not being a lawyer, I would venture to guess this would have to be translated anyway with or without ACPPA.

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Some of the Airport Ops Manuals must be bilingual.

All non management training courses must be provided in both languages

All internal memos from execs, newsletters, HR stuff and applications must be bilingual.

Company must provide French Language Training - even to French speakers

(The collective agreements I've read over the years came in both languages)

Overall I would say most stuff not directly from the aircraft manufacturer must be published in both languages. If AC produces the bulk of the content then it must be produced in both languages. I'm not sure if it's because of a Fed reg, or ACPPA, or Quebec law

There are also the Customer service obligations as well which are onerous.

20 mill probably seems a reasonable estimate.

There are also intangibles like having a smaller pool of eligible candidates for many jobs which also has a negative follow on effect. I encounter that issue often enough and some of the HR policies re bilingualism definitely favour the francophone applicants.

It's not all bad though. I personally feel the bilingual aspect of AC gives a certain a 'cachet' you don't get with other North American carriers. When I get on an AC plane returning from overseas I feel like I'm already home. If I'm taking Continental or some other carrier I know I'm still not quite home. A few buddy's in the US fly AC to Asia or Europe for exactly the same reason so I know there's some kind of payback there. If the ACPPA was rescinded, I have to believe our marketing could suffer a bit of a hit if we diluted elements of the French Canadian influence on board.

Still though - I would like my pension to be there when I retire so perhaps we should petition the government and watch WJ scramble to get their new French language obligations all in order. (naaaah! that would just be petty and small minded)

And besides.............. :stirthepot:

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The IAM made translation of technical documents to French one of their agenda items in the last round of collective bargaining.

It was removed in the early rounds but was still a ask in the early rounds.

The IAM in YUL are still pursuing the issue using the ACPPA

http://www.aimta1751...13084904332.pdf

Stupid, short sighted, dangerous.

I really don't miss the IAM and I'm an ex shop steward, FTTW.

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I've seen translated technical documents and the thought of using them on the line scares me a bit. The people doing the translation aren't technical people and their finished product will have mistakes - sometimes significant. TC would then have to approve the thing and given the potential for error, I would bet their review and approval would take a year at least. The backlog would just continue to build until the manual was years out of date.

If French manuals were ever to be employed, then they would need to come from the manufacturer in French and used verbatim. That would be fine for Airbus I expect but Boeing and Embraer would probably never agree to provide them at anywhere near a reasonable cost.

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