OVERVIEW

CUPE represents approximately 37,900 members in the transportation sector, including workers in airlines, airports, ferries, port authorities, rail, roads and highways, and public and private transit systems.

The Airline Division represents more than 20,000 members at eleven different airlines, including Air Canada, Rouge, WestJet, Encore, Air Transat, Sunwing, Calm Air, Flair Airlines, PAL Airlines, Pascan Aviation, Pivot, Air North, Porter and Canadian North. CUPE also represents maintenance workers at 5 municipal airports.

Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat have several locals, with an executive responsible for each local, and a national executive committee that oversees collective bargaining and grievances. Members of other carriers are represented by one single local. The CUPE Airline Division is the governing body for the sector and meets prior to CUPE’s national convention.

CUPE also represents 10,700 transit workers. The majority are bus drivers employed by municipal transit authorities in Quebec.

Each municipality has a separate local and collective agreement. Sector representatives meet quarterly as CUPE Quebec’s Conseil provincial du secteur du transport terrestre (CPSTT) to discuss issues of common concern and plan sector-wide campaigns.

Road and highway maintenance workers form the third largest group in the sector with over 4,500 members. These members perform a wide range of inside- and outside-work related to provincial road repair and maintenance.

Another 3,000 transportation members are employed in the marine and rail sectors, including port workers in the Province of Quebec, SkyTrain and Southern Rail in British Columbia, local port authorities, and ferry workers in Ontario and Quebec.

ISSUES

Hostile Government Policy and Legislation

A well funded, accessible, and affordable transportation system is vital to the safe and reliable movement of people and goods. It’s also an important determinant of economic and social growth. However, transportation workers worldwide are facing intense pressures—lower wages and deteriorating working conditions as governments and corporations compete in a “race to the bottom” through privatization and deregulation, increasing precarity, and attacks on collective bargaining rights.

Transport Canada continues to operate in secrecy and in the interests of corporations, prioritizing profitability over public safety in commercial aviation and rail transportation. In fact, a regulation that allows for fewer flight attendants onboard aircraft clearly states the cost savings airlines will realize based on lower wages and other related labour costs.

Transport Canada allows airlines to reduce the number of flight attendants required onboard aircraft. Fewer flight attendants compromise the safety of both passengers and crew, increase flight attendants’ workload, erode the quality of their work, and undermine job security. CUPE has urged Transport Canada to increase the number of flight attendants working on aircraft.

The work of transit drivers and highway and of road workers is increasingly being privatized and contracted out resulting in the loss of well-paying jobs, more precarious employment, and attacks on collective bargaining rights. The fallout has been increased by job insecurity, work overload, and decreased job satisfaction.

Health and Safety

Reducing the number of CUPE flight attendants required on aircraft is a major health and safety concern. Reducing cabin crew affects all safety procedures, especially in emergency situations, and leads to greater workload and increased fatigue. CUPE has been proactive in bargaining language that exceeds the regulations even though Transport Canada allows airlines to fly with fewer cabin crew. For example, CUPE has bargained language for members at Air Canada and Air Transat that maintains the safety-proven ratio of one flight attendant per forty passenger seats on some aircraft.

Transport Canada shirked its responsibility to keep airline workers and passengers safe during the pandemic. Instead of acting like a regulator, Transport Canada allowed airlines to determine pandemic safety precautions at their discretion, putting profits over safety. The federal government deemed airline workers essential during the pandemic, but it did not protect workers from the economic impacts of the pandemic or support airline workers’ right to refuse unsafe work.

Transit drivers also experience a range of occupational health risks including musculoskeletal problems, stomach and intestinal disorders, sleeping disorders, and psychological problems. Cabins are often cramped, poorly designed and illuminated, and expose drivers to constant temperature changes and vibration. Work schedules are frequently erratic with split shifts, inadequate rest periods during and between shifts, and exhausting shift rotations.

Flight attendants and transit drivers are concerned about the increased risk of workplace violence. On Canada’s airlines, added fees, reduced onboard service, and higher-density aircraft have increased the number of dissatisfied and disruptive passengers. Disorderly and sometimes violent passengers have put transit drivers’ safety at risk. Workers feel unprotected and unsupported by management and report high levels of stress.

Highway and road workers face occupational risks related to fatigue and stress, including excessive hours of work during severe weather conditions, and driving emergency vehicles in hazardous conditions.

Canada Infrastructure Bank

Pointing to evidence provided by CUPE, in May 2022 a parliamentary committee report recommended the abolishment of the Canada Infrastructure Bank (CIB), a major victory for opponents of privatization. The committee confirmed that privatization costs more, delivers less, and harms the public services we need. The mandate of the CIB is to support public transit, trade and transportation, and green infrastructure through funding provided by public-private partnerships (P3s).

The federal liberals broke an election promise to support municipalities with low-cost loans  and instead launched the CIB that served the interests of big corporations. It performed poorly, lost millions of dollars, and had little to show for its massive operating budget and executive salaries.

CUPE has been advocating for a public bank that works for communities, not corporations; a bank that would be a source of low-cost loans to help governments build infrastructure, boost the economy, and supports good, green jobs. A public bank would loan money at lower interest rates, support community projects, and would not come with a requirement to privatize through P3s and other schemes.

BARGAINING

Collective bargaining has been turbulent in Canada’s airline sector for decades. Over the past thirty years, deregulation, ruinous price wars, and fierce competition have eroded flight attendants’ wages and working conditions. These factors have created a new underclass of mostly young, precariously employed workers. Recent rounds of airline bargaining have focussed on protecting hard-won gains and preventing concessions.

For ground, marine, and rail transportation workers, austerity-minded provincial and municipal governments continue to privatize and contract out, placing downward pressure on wages and benefits. Priority bargaining issues for the transportation sector include wages, benefits, and working conditions, particularly workers’ health and safety; job security and increasing precarity; privatization and deregulation; ending unpaid work; and attacks on collective agreement rights. CUPE transportation locals continue to make noticeable gains despite the tough bargaining climate.

CAMPAIGNS

Transportation workers face formidable challenges from both employers and governments. But CUPE continues to fight to protect good wages, benefits, and working conditions through campaigns and political action.

Unpaid Work Won’t Fly

Flight attendants are responsible for ensuring the safety and comfort of passengers along with the safety and security of the plane itself on the ground and at 25,000 feet. Flight attendants must know the planes they’re working on; flight attendants oversee passenger safety too. They must know everything from emergency response protocols to first aid, from dealing with unruly passengers to putting out fires onboard. They are also trained to deal with everything from dangerous goods to a death on board. All of this, of course, requires an extensive amount of training—and retraining annually too. Flight attendants are in a constant cycle of keeping their training up to date.

Some of these duties are paid, but many are paid at or below the federal minimum wage, and even more are not paid at all, depending on which airline they work for. The majority off flight attendants in Canada are not paid when helping passenger boarding and deplaning, or while waiting because of delays.