Wesley Lesosky has been a steadfast advocate for flight attendants’ rights, currently serving his third term as president of CUPE’s Air Canada Component. He is also president of CUPE’s Airline Division, representing over 18,500 flight attendants across ten airlines, leading efforts to secure fair treatment and safer working conditions for all workers in the sector.
 
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wesley was at the forefront of the fight for a safe return to flying as two thirds of CUPE’s flight attendants were laid off almost overnight, and others had to work in unsafe conditions. Focused on mobilizing members, he is a firm believer that flight attendants can achieve better collective agreements and address the needs and challenges in the airline industry by making themselves heard, acknowledged and respected by the general public.
With air travel rebounding to pre-pandemic levels, Wesley is championing CUPE’s campaign Unpaid Work Won’t Fly as flight attendants on duty perform hours of critical tasks to ensure passenger safety, often unpaid. As a general rule, flight attendants are only compensated while the aircraft is in motion – which means countless duties critical to passenger safety are not paid.
“An hour worked should be an hour paid. The era of unpaid time on the ground for flight attendants
will come to an end.”
 
Question 1
How did you end up in your career as a flight attendant, and how did you wind up president of the Air Canada Component and CUPE’s Airline Division?
I was drawn into the aviation sector when I was working at a Safeway grocery store. Right around that time, Safeway workers across British Columbia were about to go on strike, so my transition into the aviation industry and the union movement really went hand in hand.
 
I was hired as a flight attendant at Canada 3000, a discount charter airline, and I got into the union movement when we began organizing the flight attendants there with CUPE. When Canada 3000 collapsed, I joined Zip at Air Canada, and I became the very first union representative at Zip. I also held a whole bunch of other roles within my union before ending up here as president.
 
Question 2
Who are some of the people who inspired you to become the leader you are today?
My first local president, Denise Callahan, played a huge part in inspiring and empowering me to take on a leadership role. Within CUPE, Nathalie Stringer was someone who really supported me to take on a bigger role. We had challenging conversations but really important conversations. There is so much to love about being a union activist. I love the organizing aspect like what is happening at Porter – where cabin crew are excited to be able to grow their voice and improve their working conditions by joining CUPE. I love
the Airline Division, because it gives us a lot of perspective on what’s happening across our industry beyond our own airlines and our own locals. It gives us a way of identifying challenges, and fixing those challenges, and making life better for our members. It’s about learning, and I embrace that aspect a lot.
 
Question 3
What is your favourite thing about being a flight attendant?
It’s the people that I work with and the incredible diversity of backgrounds and, of course, the passengers. I’m someone who embraces culture, people, and experiences, and this is certainly a career that has allowed me to have so many diverse conversations on each flight.
 
Question 4
What are some things about a flight attendant’s job that the public probably doesn’t know, but should?

Most people don’t know that we work countless unpaid hours every week – but we’re working pretty hard to change that. 

If you’re a firefighter, a bank teller, an electrician, or almost any other profession in Canada, when you show up for work and perform work duties, you’re on the clock and you’re compensated for your time. For flight attendants in Canada, that simply isn’t the case. We’re at work, in uniform,
performing work-related duties long before we start – and long after we stop – getting paid. It’s things like prepping the aircraft, boarding and deplaning passengers, gate duties, safety checks and training. Flight attendants perform 35 hours of unpaid work, on average, every month while taking responsibility for hundreds of lives.
 
The other thing most people don’t consider is the sheer amount of time that we’re away. We’re away from family and our relationships all the time. We miss most holidays with our loved ones because those are the busiest times for our profession. That can be really challenging and has a mental health toll as well.
 
Question 5
You were once terminated from your job because of your sexual orientation. Is that something that motivates you in your work today to empower members and fight for justice?
It’s something that comes to mind for sure, but one of the things that drew to me to this industry was the level of acceptance that has historically been pretty unique to this profession. Looking at where things were back then and where things are today shows you just how far we’ve come.Union activism has played a huge role in advancing those rights. We’ve made a lot of progress.
 
Question 6
What is your biggest hope for the future of your work?
Right now, all of my efforts are in getting a fair collective agreement for our Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge members before the current agreement expires in March 2025. Our agreement is 10 years-old and our members have fallen far, far behind. So my North Star these days is a contract with substantial improvements to wages and benefits and pensions, and a contract that makes unpaid work a thing of the past in our industry. 
 
Visit UnpaidWorkWontFly.ca for more information about the campaign, events, and the work that flight attendants do every day.
 
A 2022 CUPE survey revealed that flight attendants work an average of 34.86 hours unpaid per month. That is almost a full week every month.
 
• Flight attendants are not paid for boarding, which can take up to an hour.
• Flight attendants are not paid for their pre-flight prep and safety checks.
• 99.5% of flight attendants aren’t paid when they are checking in through security, even though they are at work in uniform.
• 98.6% of flight attendants aren’t paid while passengers deplane after a flight, even though
they are still assisting passengers disembark. 
• 75% of flight attendants are only paid a partial wage for mandatory regulatory training, even though airlines and the federal government require several training days per year.
• 98.4% of flight attendants are not paid when the plane is being held at the gate after landing, even though they are still assisting passengers, often in elevated temperatures.
 
CUPE is Canada’s flight attendant union, representing approximately 18,500 flight attendants at ten airlines nationwide, including Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat, Sunwing, Calm Air, PAL Airlines, Flair Airlines, Canadian North, Pascan, and Pivot Airlines.