New TA reached!

[Johnny Mapleleaf]

Was the Notice to bargain filed before or after March 31st, (whe the present CA expired). If it was filed after, your current CA is no longer valid, it has expired. Therefore, AC can change the terms and conditions of employment at their leisure. Ie, the scope clause against SkyRegional or the Start of an LCC would not apply.

My understanding is that if the collective agreement goes beyond its end date, it is still valid until the complete labour process, including conciliation, mediation, and the 72-hour strike notice have been served. Just because the date comes and goes does not mean that either party can arbitrarily disregard the provisions of the agreement. Otherwise, the whole labour relations system steps above imposed by law for resolving the impasse would be meaningless.

[Marinth]

Collective Bargaining 101

1. The Union has to file the Notice to Bargain, this can be done up to 4 months before the expiration of a contract. I ACPA's case, DEC 01,2010 would have been the earliest they could have filed it.

Once filed, the Notice to Bargain Triggers several things:
-Statuory Freeze of the present CA, until the a new CA is reached or a strike/lockout position occurs.
-The company and the union must be in contact within 15 days in order to set up meetings for negotiation
-Both the company and the union have to come up with an essential services agreeement.

2. Both parties must sit down and table all proposals, and counter proposals. The proposals must have sufficient information provided by both parties so that they are understood. Also, any crystalized plans by the company must be revealed.

3. If both parties cannot agree on a TA. The the union can file for concilliation. The FMCS will appoint a concilliator (There is a time limit for this, I am not sure what it is, a week or two). A concilliator is not an arbitrador. He or she cannot enforce a TA. All he or she can do is give advice to both parties on how they can reach a TA.

4. Both parties must meet with a concilliator during a 60 day period. The union can ask for a strike vote anytime during the 60 day period. The strike vote itself is also valid for 60 days. Therefore, it is good practice to hold a strike vote at the end of 60 period of concilliation.

5. A 21 day cooling off period follows after 60 days of concilliation (assuming no TA has been reached). After the 21 days, both parties are able to enter in a Strike/lockout position.

6. A 72 hour strike notice must be filed in order for the Union to go on strike(assuming they have a positive strike vote). the 72 hour notice can be filed within the 21 day cooling off period.

All of the above must be met before an employee group can strike,

DH

Steve just got his majority, so I wouldn't worry too much about the whole strike thing. Air Canada will likely be considered an essential service. Back to work!

[bcflyer]

[Steve just got his majority, so I wouldn't worry too much about the whole strike thing. Air Canada will likely be considered an essential service. Back to work!

Here is the definition of an essential service.

(PSLRA, Section 4)

DefinitionServices should be identified as essential where there are reasonable grounds for accepting the probability, or even the possibility, that human life or public safety would suffer if a work stoppage interrupted the duties of these employees.

Maybe someone smarter than me can show how Air Canada not flying could possible cause human life or public safety to suffer.

I know its been threatened many times but so far nobody has called their bluff......

[rudder]

AC is not an essential service. They have shut down before. As long as Jazz is permitted to keep running their AC code flights to the stations to which they are the only air service provider it is unlikely that the federal government would contemplate legislation. "Threat to national commerce" would be the only possible argument that could be advanced in legislation. And that legislative process could not be started until after the start of the labour disruption. There is no way that the NDP would allow any procedural flexibility to expedite the steps required to place the order, debate the order, vote on the order, or enact the order.

[Ifly]

Very Naive Rudder,

Jazz was going to be legislated back to work if we ended up on strike. Our MEC was informed of that by the Minister of Labour herself before we had even given strike notice. The official reason: It would be an undue hardship on the people of Canada during summer vacation.

I'm not kidding.

[SilentMajority]

For about 21 days......

Jazz will handle the regional flights.

WestJet, as well as our US competitors, will handle the North American market albeit a little fuller than usual.

Our overseas route competitors as well as our codeshare partners will also be a little busier but nothing that a few extra sections won't handle.

Rumor has it that AC will report close to a $100 Million loss for the 1st Qtr. on Thursday.

WestJet just announced a $48 million profit for the 1st Qtr......go figure.

[FICU]

Rumor has it that AC will report close to a $100 Million loss for the 1st Qtr. on Thursday.

WestJet just announced a $48 million profit for the 1st Qtr......go figure.

And from my experience AC is filling their planes... something has to give and unfortunately it won't be from the top.

[teacher]

The official reason: It would be an undue hardship on the people of Canada during summer vacation.

AND CR claimed to the labour minister that a strike at Jazz would force AC into CCAA again within days. True or not this is why we were threatened with BTWL before we even gave notice to strike.

[rudder]

Rumor has it that AC will report close to a $100 Million loss for the 1st Qtr. on Thursday.

WestJet just announced a $48 million profit for the 1st Qtr......go figure.

Every other legacy carrier also reported nominal Q1 losses. Most attributed the loss to rising fuel prices. Didn't notice any LCC announcements from any of these carriers, impending CH 11 filings, or shredding of recently improved pilot agreements in order to protect executive bonuses.

Yes, AC has some pilot efficiency issues. But no other pilot group is naiive or stupid enough to agree to a B-scale. What is being proposed at AC is akin to killing a fly with a howitzer. Last line of defense is the pilots that get to vote for both representation and the terms and conditions of their professional employment.