TO ALL MEMBERS OF THE IAMAW
AIR CANADA – TMOS AND CLERICAL
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
Your Transition Committee representatives from across the country met in Winnipeg this week from July 11 to 14 to continue dealing with the ongoing 64 items presented to the companies and the 22 joint secondment issues.
On July 13, we had an arbitration conference with chief arbitrator Teplitsky to deal with the following contentious issues:
• MLCs (Material Logistics Coordinators) identified as Aveos employees purchasing material for Air Canada.
This case was adjourned in August for a face-to-face hearing. The union has identified eight jobs in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal that should have been migrated over to Air Canada. Should the union succeed, these positions will be made available to existing MLCs.
• Subcontracting of a DND aircraft scheduled for an A check. This case had been adjourned to July 14 to allow the company the time to provide the arbitrator with further information, and has now been further adjourned to July 16.
• OJT (On-the-Job Trainer). A bulletin was posted for applicants to apply in various cities across the country. We sought a cease-and-desist on this posting as the position does not exist in the collective agreement and the course development and classroom training properly belongs to the technical training instructors. The arbitrator commented that members are not to perform this type of work. The cease-and-desist was granted on the new positions the company had been trying to establish. As for existing positions, these will be dealt with at a future date.
• Embraer subcontract. During a previous arbitration hearing on the company’s notice to subcontract work to Embraer, the arbitrator had allowed four aircraft to be outsourced but stated there would be no layoffs for the duration of these subcontracts. As the previous bulletin on this topic raised some questions, this arbitrator clarified his position to say “there will be no layoff in any city within Air Canada or Aveos Maintenance while aircraft are outsourced.”
• Movement of members. Air Canada tabled a document on movement of people and how to accomplish this.
While nothing was formally agreed to, it definitely raised some concerns. The union has been asking the companies what their plans are in regards to movement of members to the location and company of their choice. There are members who wish to move today, and their movement would not only include company to company but city to city. In addition, there are members who request to be laid off as soon as possible due to other opportunities. For this reason, the companies and the union have issued a bulletin to find out approximately how many members this would involve.
The company has also agreed to canvass our members by seniority and move them by juniority, by location and by company. This plan needs further work and should be in place in the near future.
• Secondment. The union and the companies are still in discussion regarding what Aveos employees would receive for being hired as Air Canada employees seconded to their job locations.
• C2 and C3 passes. Since Air Canada Industry Travel is in the process of creating a form, we feel there is no immediate need to make a selection until this form is issued since company service for the purpose of passes continues at this time until December 31, 2011.
• Replacing above-basic positions. Concerning the issue of replacing employee who hold above-basic positions and have selected retire/rehire options, the process for posting these vacancies will take place at each station. In the interim, there will acting assignments from the ranks of each category.
In solidarity,
The Union Transition Committee
GS:mcb
