Leading up to the election, the Liberals and Canada’s airlines have made moves to threaten passenger safety by reducing the number of flight attendants on airplanes.
- CUPE’s 2006 election campaign page
- How CUPE members can protect public services, a HOW-TO guide for the election campaign
- Federal NDP website
- Tell a friend about this site
Considering it’s the holiday season – and that means many Canadians are flying to be with family and friends – we should reflect on CUPE flight attendants who provide airline safety and their lobbying efforts to maintain public safety.
Even though Ottawa rejected the reduction of flight attendants in 2001 due to safety concerns, the Liberals now seem willing to sacrifice the public’s safety for growing airline profits.
New regulations were approved by Transport Canada management to cut the minimum number of flight attendants by 25 per cent on aircraft with more than 50 seats – this means that instead of a flight attendant-passenger ratio of 1 in 40 it would be 1 in 50. This move contradicts the passenger safety rhetoric of the Liberals and Canadian airlines.
It’s more than a coincidence that all the passengers survived the Air France crash in Toronto on Aug. 3, 2005. Experts believe the passengers and crew survived because there was a full crew of 10 trained flight attendants – within the 1 in 40 ratio – who removed everyone before the plane burst into flames.
Flight attendants save lives and with fewer of them the odds of surviving an emergency will be cut too. Don’t let the airlines and the Liberals take risks with passenger safety by cutting flight attendants.
Visit CUPE flight attendants’ lobbying website, www.airpassengersafety.ca, to send a message of airline safety to the candidates in your riding.