CUPE Flight Attendants Reject Standing Committee Report
Ottawa - The Canadian Union of Public Employees representing 9,000 flight attendants today rejected the report on the future of Canadas Airline Industry presented to the government by the House of Commons Standing Committee on Transportation.
“I dont know where this Committee has been over the last few weeks, because not one of the 42 recommendations addresses the immediate crisis faced by close to 4,000 flight attendants at Canadian Airlines and Inter-Canadien Airlines,” said CUPE National President Judy Darcy. “The Committee is ignoring the current reality. A disturbing reality marked by the potential loss of service and thousands of jobs 0061006c006c a result of government botched industry restructuring,” she said.
“Flight attendants have been living through months of uncertainty since the government opened up this Pandoras box in August which only allowed separate shareholder deals to be debated through the media and has not provided long term solutions,” said Denise Hill President of the Airline Division of CUPE.
“This report mirrors government inaction for a solution that benefits airline employees and the travelling public and furthermore it does nothing to calm the fears of the employees of the regional carriers and highlight their importance to the industry,” she added.
The committee is also proposing that the airline industry in Canada be opened up to foreign competition. This is nothing more than an attempt to undermine the wages and working conditions that flight attendants have worked long and hard to achieve, simply because this committee does not want to tell the government how to regulate a monopoly,” said Darcy.
The two leaders also note that the report is accompanied by six minority reports of the Committee, including dissenting reports from two government members. This illustrates that the situation is a highly controversial public policy issue they said. CUPE is calling on the government to put its plan forward for full public debate immediately.
For information: Catherine Louli