Canadian Labour Reporter

lAboUr brieFs 2 Canadian HR Reporter, a Thomson Reuters business 2014 Union challenges changes to Air Canada's fl ight attendant ratio OTTAWA — Air Canada's move to reduce the number of flight attendants on its air- craft is being challenged by the union at the Federal Court. Launched by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents more than 7,000 flight attendants at Air Canada, the judicial review challenges Transport Canada's decision to exempt the airline from passenger-to-flight-atten- dant ratios. The transportation regulator allowed Air Canada to have one flight attendant for ev- ery 50 passengers, as opposed to 40 passengers. The exemption will impact passenger safety and security, according to the union. "In an emergency situation — like an evacuation, fire, cabin decompression, a disruptive passenger or terrorist attack — flight attendants are the first line of defense when things go wrong on an aircraft," said Michel Cournoyer, president of CUPE's airline division. "Fewer flight at- tendants means more risks for passengers. We're confident the courts will see this simple fact." Other airlines, such as Air Canada's direct competitor, WestJet, have been operating with the one-to-40 ratio since last fall. Both Transport Canada and the companies have denied that the changes threaten safety, arguing instead that they are aligning themselves with inter- national regulations. American and European airlines apply the one-to-50 ratio. Since 1999, CUPE has fought such changes to flight-atten- dant-to-passenger ratios, in- cluding a battle at Sunwing Air- lines, which moved to reduce the number of attendants in Octo- ber 2013. "Bending to airline industry pressures to reduce the number of flight attendants for the sake of increasing profits is inexcus- able," Cournoyer added. Regina civic pension plan talks break down REGINA — According to its pension and benefits commit- tee, the City of Regina recently walked away from negations over its civic pension plan. "Instead of working with plan members to finalize a proposal on dispute resolution, the City has decided to go its own way and turn its back on the work we have done together in the past," said Kirby Benning, chair of the Regina Civic Pension and Ben- efits Committee in a statement. "It has made it clear that it does not want to negotiate a timely dispute resolution mechanism or jointly promote the signed deal we have." Benning said an all-day meet- ing with employers on Aug. 13 indicated they had no interest in coming to an agreement. City manager Glen Davies was surprised by the statement, say- ing the employer remains dedi- cated to meet with the commit- tee at any time. "We're disappointed that the employees' group would suggest that the employers have walked away from the table," Davies said in a news release. "We weren't satisfied with the discussions, but we finished the day with the understanding that we would go back to our teams to talk about prospective meeting dates. We don't understand the statement from the employees' group." Failed negotiations could spell uncertain retirements for as many as 7,000 current employ- ees and pensioners. According to the city, the Regina Civic Em- ployees' Superannuation & Ben- efit Plan has a funding shortfall of $240 million and a deficit of as much as $117 million. The city has shown interest in making the move to a targeted rather than defined benefits pension plan, something the committee considers a sticking point. According to the employees' group it has already agreed to reducing the cost of the plan by one quarter and shifting a signif- icant amount of future risk from the City to workers. "We made serious conces- sions to the pension plan in order to ensure the plan was fi- nancially stable," Benning said. "Now, instead of implementing the agreed-to changes, we are being told that we may not have a pension plan at all." Unifor's fi rst-ever women's conference saw more than 300 dele- gates discuss the future of feminism in the labour movement. foRMeRLY CLV RePoRTS Serving labour relations professionals since 1956 www.labour-reporter.com Published weekly by omson Reuters Canada Ltd. 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If legal or other expert assistanceis required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. e analysis contained herein represents the opinion of the authors and should in no way be construed as being either offi cial or unoffi cial policy of any governmental body. ISSN 0045-5113 Publications Registration 2089 Canadian Labour Reporter is part of the Canadian HR Reporter group of publications. Visit www.hrreporter.com for more information. Labour Reporter Canadian www.labourreporter.com Photo: Unifor lAboUr lens

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