CUPE's flight attendant members will be holding a day of action at several major airports across Canada as part of their union's ongoing "Unpaid Work Won't Fly" campaign in advance of negotiations. CUPE represents around 18,500 flight attendants at ten Canadian airlines.
The union's "National Day of Action to End Unpaid Work" will be held 25APR at YUL, YYZ, YYC, and YVR. Although details of the action are scant, it appears the flight attendants and their union plan on rallies, all set to start at the same time: 12 p.m. EDT. It does not indicate where at the airports the rallies will be held, or whether they are expected to disrupt passengers or traffic.
CUPE claims flight attendants work an average of 35 hours unpaid each month. The union says airlines do not pay flight attendants for work like assisting passengers with boarding, pre-flight safety checks, deplaning, and other delays. The union says it conducted a survey between DEC 2022 and JAN 2023 of 9,500 members to come to the 35-hour figure.
The issue may not be so clear cut. While claiming Canada's flight attendants perform hours of "unpaid work," the union has not addressed their pay structure.
As Open Jaw previously reported, industry members note that the pay structure for flight attendants is complex and that flight attendants are paid a blended hourly rate that is meant to account for the total time they work. They told Open Jaw that attendants are paid an average of $65/hour, a rate that can rise up to $90/hour for the highest level of employees.
