TO ALL IAMAW MEMBERS
EMPLOYED BY
AIR CANADA
UNFAIR LABOUR PRACTICE COMPLAINT
FILED AGAINST AIR CANADA BY THE UNION
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
During the last round of negotiations, the IAM asked for a $10,000 increase to the maximum cap
on pensionable earnings. Air Canada advised our bargaining team and the mediator that each
$1000 increase would place a funding burden on the plan of $5 million and a burden on Air
Canada of $500,000 a year in additional contributions and that this wasn’t affordable. However,
in 2016, they have turned around and declared that the plan is 124% funded and that Air
Canada is taking a contribution holiday worth $47 million dollars from making any contributions
to the plan for the whole of 2016.
The Union’s proposal to increase the pension cap affected approximately 1200 Aircraft
Maintenance Engineers (AME’s). As it stands now, these members are the only employees at
Air Canada who can’t earn pension benefits on 100% of their regular wages and who will not
see increased pension benefits as a result of the wage increases bargained for them in the last
round of negotiations.
Your Union has now concluded that the fund can handle this request, the employer doesn’t
have to open their check book, and that Air Canada must have known this in bargaining. As
such, late afternoon on Friday, October 14, 2016, Transportation District 140 filed an unfair
labour practice complaint with the Canadian Labour Relations Board (CIRB) alleging that Air
Canada mislead the Union and the arbitrator and bargained in bad faith.
In Solidarity,
Fred Hospes
President and Directing General Chairperson
Transportation District 140, IAMAW
