CUPE, the union representing flight attendants across Canada, has launched a "12 Days of Unpaid Work" series before the busy holiday travel season, highlighting the ways flight attendants feel they work for free for major airlines.
"All we want for Christmas this year is pay for time worked," said Wesley Lesosky, President of the Airline Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 18,500 flight attendants at ten airlines in Canada. "Airline executives across Canada need to know that forcing overworked flight attendants to work unpaid for almost a full work-week every month is a one-way ticket to the naughty list."
The series is part of CUPE's Airline Division's Unpaid Work Won't Fly campaign, a joint effort of 10 airline groups "to combat the abuse of unpaid work in the airline sector, which sees the average flight attendant work 35 hours per month unpaid."
CUPE said flight attendants are only compensated while the aircraft is in motion, which means countless duties ranging from pre-flight safety checks to boarding and deplaning to customs and security are not paid.
Watch the series here.
Learn more at unpaidworkwontfly.ca.
