Air Transat flight attendants in Montreal and Toronto ultimately accepted 63% of the mediators’ recommendation submitted to them to renew their collective agreement.
It took three attempts to reach this settlement. And they thus become “the highest paid in the industry”, according to their union.
2,100 Air Transat flight attendants based at Montreal and Toronto airports, members of local sections of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), are targeted.
There was a first agreement in principle in mid-December, under the threat of a strike being called at the beginning of January. But this agreement was rejected by the members, without a strike being called.
The parties returned to the negotiating table at the beginning of January, then reached a second agreement in principle on January 7. This had once again been rejected by the members at general meetings.
This time, it was not on an agreement in principle that the 2,100 flight attendants were called upon to decide, but on the recommendation of the mediators. And they finally approved it, confirmed the CUPE, which is affiliated with the FTQ in Quebec.
CUPE reports that the new 2022-2027 employment contract provides for “total salary increases of 30% over five years”. It also provides for the abolition of the first two salary levels.
The new contract includes improvements to vacation and time off.
“It has been a long and complex process, but finally, we are crossing the finish line with substantial pay increases for our flight attendant members. This will be an extremely well-deserved adjustment after years of efforts to help the company through financial difficulties, followed by the catastrophic years of the pandemic, then the period of high inflation,” commented Chantal Bourgeois, union advisor at CUPE.