Air Transat’s 2100 flight attendants, represented by CUPE, have rejected the tentative agreement reached on December 14. At general membership meetings held from December 20-23 and attended by 87% of the membership, 98.1% voted to turn down the deal. Insufficient wage increases in relation to the cost of living and the stagnating compensation from previous years were given as the main reasons.
The company and the union are planning to resume negotiations on Wednesday of this week. Given the members’ rather acute dissatisfaction, the union may end up filing a strike notice.
“The Air Transat flight attendants clearly indicated to us that the agreement did not relieve the suffering and financial insecurity they experience on a daily basis. We’ll be returning to the bargaining table without delay to reach an agreement that will meet their needs. It must also be pointed out that they are the highest performers in the industry,” explained Dominic Levasseur, president of CUPE’s Air Transat component.
CUPE will not be making any further comment until further notice to allow negotiations to run their course.
The collective agreement of these flight attendants based at the Montreal (YUL) and Toronto (YYZ) airports expired on October 31, 2022. Negotiations officially began on April 27, 2023.
On November 27, 2023, CUPE announced that they received a near unanimous strike mandate of 99.8% at their general membership meetings, by far the highest figure recorded by CUPE’s Air Transat component. If a strike does take place, all flights will be cancelled.
The matter of unpaid work is also part of upcoming negotiations. More details on this issue can be found at https://unpaidworkwontfly.ca/