Dear Brothers and Sisters,
At the De Havilland unit, we continue to feel the effects of our ownership’s malice for unionized employees. Every “business decision” made since acquiring the Dash 8 program in June of 2019 has negatively impacted our Members with the exceptions of our new office location and benefits demanded by the union during CBA bargaining. These impacts range from minor to major violations of our CBA such as OT equalization and contractors such as AAA doing bargaining unit work respectively. More critically, the company has restructured the Quality organization ignoring their obligations under work commitment language negotiated during CBA bargaining taking the position that our commitment language does not offer job protection or provide remedies for bargaining unit job loss. The cessation of the production line and anti-union business decisions have collectively reduced our membership from 174 in June of 2019 to approximately 50 today. The company’s behaviour and business decisions continue to demonstrate their disdain for unionized employees despite our members having the skill and experience to solve many of the company’s self-induced problems.
This dynamic has left the union with no recourse other than the grievance process as the company has no interest in settling disputes otherwise. As such, National Rep. Barry Lines, Local President Mary Ellen, Alternate Chairperson David Dias and myself have been preparing our most impactful grievances for arbitration now that arbitration dates start to become available with the worst of covid behind us. Our first of 15 grievances will be the AAA grievance for the company allowing AAA and salaried staff to do bargaining unit work. While we are confident that the facts of this grievance are on the union’s side, putting a binding decision in the hands of a third party is not without risk as arbitrators, like judges, can and do make bad decisions at times. Our second arbitration will be for the recent restructuring our Quality dept. where all our 1206s were laid off contrary, in the union’s view, to our current commitment language. These grievances, if won, will make clear to both parties that the company’s apparent goal of reducing union staff to the greatest degree possible must still comply with our CBA which would restrict further job loss to restructuring and outsourcing.
I cannot overstate the importance of these two grievances for the job security of our members. In both cases, the Local will be prepared and present the best possible case with the full assistance and support of the National Union to maximize the likelihood of a favourable, binding decision.
This concludes my report and I move for its adoption. In Solidarity,
NUNO PINTO
De Havilland Unit Chairperson
