Unifor Positon on Passes

[popcan]

So in practice if most check-in just as the 24 hour window opens to better assure their place in the line, the guy with the quickest keystrokes and everything else relative becomes the winner?

Different, but interesting.

Now what happens if you don't get on the flight? Are you transferred to the next flight 2 hrs from now and are you at the "checked in hrs ago" point on the list or does your original check in time follow you?

[moeman]

Now what happens if you don't get on the flight? Are you transferred to the next flight 2 hrs from now and are you at the "checked in hrs ago" point on the list or does your original check in time follow you?

Answered earlier by CanadaEh:

Quote

@CanadaEh...What if you don't get on? Does your check in time transfer to the next flight, in essence "bumping" employees who checked in for that flight originally? Do you go to the bottom of the list?If you don't get on you get transferred to the next flight, retaining your original timestamp. You get higher priority than someone already checked in/listed for that flight.

[Rookie]

Leslie Dias, national representative for Unifor, which represents the airline’s reservation and check-in staff, says her union wouldn’t be interested in such a long contract.

“A lot can change in 10 years. You need to be in a position to deal with issues when they arise,” she said. “Ten years is way too long to be locked in and unable to react.”

Dias acknowledged the pilots’ contract has influence on the type of aircraft flown, fleet size and what aircraft are flown by regional carriers.

“It does potentially put in place some stability for the rest of us, in terms of knowing what the future plans are. That’s not a negative for the rest of us,” she said. “But it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for the rest of us to do.”

http://www.thestar.com/business/2014/10/31/air_canada_pilots_ratify_10year_deal.html

[DEFCON]

The Labour Union from hell, but it at least represents its general labour sector well.

[Johnny]

If you remember Mike, at Canadi>n Retirees priority was after all active employees. The theory de jour was, retires have a lifetime to get where they're going. Under the existing rules you retain your priority, with your years of service frozen.

This whole B1 fiasco is nothing new, it just got massive attention when the Pilots got it. There was a time they were hiring Gate Support workers ( non-F/A's) who were given B1's right away. They were used as an incentive for relatively low wages. There are Secretaries around the outfit that are categorized as "Management" simply because they are non-Union, who also have B (might be 2) passes.

The slippery slope started ages ago.

Merry Christmas

[FA@AC]

“A lot can change in 10 years. You need to be in a position to deal with issues when they arise,” she said. “Ten years is way too long to be locked in and unable to react.”

Many FAs, and I'm sure employees from other work groups take that view, but I don't understand it. How is it a given that union members are always better off with a shorter contract? The industry has never gone 10 years without a major downturn and a shorter contract seems likely to increase the odds that the next negotiations will take place during a slump.

One never knows, but I'd predict that Unifor will be in a less strong position to bargain 5 years from now than they are today. Airlines everywhere are outsourcing customer handling functions at airports, and as technology continues to roll out call centres will probably be obsolete at some point.

[Guest]

Interesting to read the alternatives. The company cultures are, of course a factor. I think a first past the (check in) gate system would work great at AC, until the first exec got bumped by a new hire.

Of course that would never happen, as that group and their family members seldom travel standby. Just a perq of their job. And hence the domino effect that we live with now.

Vs

VP's and above at WS pay the standby fare and travel confirmed

[better4me]

Priority based on check-in time. Nobody is better than anyone else. Seniority means nothing.

I'm a 14 year employee. It's a great system and I hope it never changes.

Recalling the WS days under Openskies system, but I believe Buddy's had get their ticket punched at the airport, online date and time stamp didn't count. Is this still the case under Sabre? I also remember that airport could not process checkin in greater than 4 or 6 hours before flight time. Employee passes could checkin using online, therefore employees have 18-20 hour head start on buddy's.

[bluemic]

Johnny,

Thanks for bringing me up to speed on staff travel at CAIL. Not being retired at that time, I guess I didn't pay much attention to the policy.

However, I did not retire from Canadi>n, I retired from Air Canada. The fact that I was OCP has zilch to do with the fact that the pass policy I went out the door with is undergoing significant changes, nor does it negate my disappointment with those changes. Would it be any different if I were an OAC retiree? I'm sure many who were with AC from the start are feeling the same displeasure.

IMHO the changes are bad for everyone in the rank and file; they create divisiveness amongst employee groups, they have a negative effect on the concept of 'team spirit', they discriminate against those of us who no longer have a voice and they take what was once a fairly equal perquisite and dangle it in front of the employee groups like a carrot. I submit that the staff travel policy was never intended as a bargaining tool to be used in individual union negotiations, but rather that the current airline negotiators have discovered it can be - and that it costs them nothing.

But I guess I'm 'facing' into the wind...

Merry Christmas to you as well.

[popcan]

I guess that's one way of doing the "divide and conquer" thing.

It really is too bad that they have gone this route and given preferential treatment to one group over another. I can see doing this, on a contractual basis only, IF & ONLY IF the Pilots and/or the F/A's are considered "commuting to or from work". Any personal travel should be the same priority as anybody else. With all due respect, your job is no more, no less important that anybody else that works at AC.

[inchman]

Interesting topic.

Everyone was hired with a certain expectation of this particular perk of the job. This process is not too far removed from giving one group better dental benefits while taking them away from someone else.

That being said, the company does have the right to do what they want with passes, because they belong to the company and are not a contractual item. I don't think you will find anything about passes in the contract of any group. These are all side-items.

An example of the company's right to provide differential pass travel occurred quite a while ago. Starting in the early 2000s, non-union staff, including Jazz non-union employees, were all given B passes (for all travel, I believe). So, a brand new clerk at Jazz would trump a 35 year Captain traveling on passes on an Air Canada flight... or sit in J while someone at AC who paid for a C1 upgrade sat in the back.

But no union group complained until "the pilots" got B travel (and only 4 per year, remember).

It's a shame that these groups don't have the imagination to just go after something for themselves rather than trying for a(nother) "me too".

[neverminds]

So how did the January meeting go? 

[Specs]

On 12/23/2015 at 5:34 PM, inchman said:

Starting in the early 2000s, non-union staff, including Jazz non-union employees, were all given B passes (for all travel, I believe). So, a brand new clerk at Jazz would trump a 35 year Captain traveling on passes on an Air Canada flight... or sit in J while someone at AC who paid for a C1 upgrade sat in the back.

That's not quite right - non union folk had taken a fairly significant pay cut well before CCAA and the other pay cuts that were instituted later and were rewarded with a limited number of C1s (two I seem to recall).  A significant number of non union critical skills folks left the company when that pay cut was instituted. The union folks then started getting them (no pay cut required).  Eventually the whole C1 thing was trashed. Pay was not fully reinstated.

[j.k.]

Wawawaaaaaa......... 

 

[Guest]

Passes were always granted at the discretion of the airline, we all knew that when we signed on. Personally I don't use my passes very much as I want to get to where I am going usually to connect to another mode of travel, so I purchase Revenue tickets on what ever carrier can get me there in time.  You say you are fighting this fight for retirees but when it comes to that any fight (if there is indeed any merit to a fight) should be done by the group representing all retirees, namely "The AirCanada Pionairs". You certainly do not have my permission to represent me, but they do even though I was not an AirCanada employee. 

[Vsplat]

It is funny what battles groups choose.

I have lost count of the number of times inter and intra union squabbles have resulted in all unions losing and the company simply withdrawing a benefit.  (i.e. saving themselves the cost)

For all that the unions (mine included) go on about the many ways EvilCorp will mess with us,  my score card shows that most of the inexplicable, gratuitous career and earnings damage events have their origins in union, not company, agendae.

Keep on cutting off the table legs to get them level there, Jedard.  Soon you will have a serving tray.

Vs