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CUPE and its airline division have launched an advertising campaign that sounds the alarm about dangerous federal government cuts in the number of flight attendants on aircraft. The ads ran on Saturday, Oct. 12 in the travel sections of a dozen major Canadian newspapers.

Entitled ‘Emergency, brace for impact!’, the ads warn that the Conservatives aren’t making passenger safety a priority. Instead, the federal government’s plan to cut the ratio of flight attendants to passengers ignores a simple reality: having enough flight attendants on board helps save lives, because they are security professionals.

Whether read on the ground or on board flights served by CUPE’s 10,000 flight attendant members, the ads urge the public to put pressure on the Conservative government by signing a petition. This petition to keep the current ratio of one flight attendant for every 40 passengers has already collected thousands of signatures, and is available at www.change.org/flysafe.

The ads ran in the Globe and Mail, the National Post, La Presse, the Vancouver Sun, the Ottawa Citizen, the Calgary Herald, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Quebec City’s Le Soleil, the Edmonton Journal, the Winnipeg Free Press, the Regina Leader-Post and the Telegraph-Journal in Saint John, New Brunswick.

This week, ads with the same message will target federal Transport Minister Lisa Raitt, and will urge people to contact her directly. The ads will run in the three weekly newspapers in her Toronto-area riding of Halton: the Oakville Beaver, the Milton Canadian Champion and the Burlington Post.

Sign the petition at www.change.org/flysafe and let your MP know you don’t want airline safety standards to be weakened.

CUPE represents over 10,000 flight attendants working at Air Canada, Air Transat, Calm Air, Canadian North, Cathay Pacific, First Air and Sunwing.