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Over the last three years, Unifor members at WestJet Airports YVR, YYC and YYZ have made significant gains through collective action and strong contract language. These protections and improvements didn’t happen by chance. They came from bargaining together and standing united as members.
Protecting Jobs and Preventing Outsourcing
One of the most important protections in our Collective Agreement is the ban on outsourcing unionized work. This ensures that the jobs we do and the wages, benefits, and security that come with them remain here in Canada. Unfortunately, we know what outsourcing looks like in our very own world. Under the guise of Covid, WestJet outsourced thousands of WestJetters including Guest Service Ambassadors and Customer Service Agents, Baggage Service Agents, Daily Duty Coordinators and even managers in tier two and tier three airports across Canada. This exact scenario is currently playing out again to our non-unionized colleagues, with work being shifted outside of Canada. This undermines good jobs, lowers standards, lowers wages and erodes the very stability our members have fought to achieve.
Despite being "represented" by the AEA, we had no real legal protection and without a union, we were unable to fight the outsourcing in 2020 and 2021. Today, with Unifor, we are able to hold the company accountable to the contract, and protect the principle that our jobs should not be sent overseas. Without strong union representation, outsourcing would expand unchecked, leaving many of us vulnerable and likely no longer working a job we all love.
Job Security and Fair Treatment
Over the past three years, members have benefited from negotiated job protection language that prevents arbitrary layoffs and ensures fair treatment in the workplace. This includes seniority rights, better scheduling, higher wages, overtime pay and the ability to challenge unfair discipline through the grievance procedure. These rights mean that no one has to face the company alone, you always have the support of your union.
Wages, Benefits, and Working Conditions
Because of our Collective Agreement, members have seen improvements in wages and benefits. Unionized workers have access to up to 12 paid sick days, vacation protections, and health benefits that would be far weaker or non-existent without union representation. Bargained improvements like these are a direct result of members negotiating together.
A Voice at Work
The union is more than a contract. Over the last three years, Unifor has represented members in policy meetings, raised safety concerns, fought for better staffing levels, and ensured that the company is reminded of its obligations under the law and our agreement. These are protections and gains that benefit all members, whether you’ve been here three months or thirty years.
Looking Ahead
As outsourcing and corporate cost-cutting continue to threaten Canadian jobs, our union will keep fighting to protect our members. Together, we’ve shown that when workers are united, we not only secure better pay and working conditions, but also defend the long-term future of our jobs.
At a time when Canadians have spent the last nine months pushing back against the Trump administration’s “America First” policies and fighting to keep jobs here at home, WestJet’s actions stand in sharp contrast. By outsourcing Canadian jobs to El Salvador, WestJet is not acting in the spirit of protecting Canadian workers or communities.
This isn’t the “Canadian way” of looking out for one another, supporting good-paying jobs, and keeping our economy strong. Instead of keeping their elbows up for Canadian workers, WestJet has chosen to send jobs out of the country, undermining the very principles we’ve been defending on the international stage.
If WestJet truly wants to be a proud Canadian airline, it must stop exporting jobs and start honoring its responsibility to keep work and wages in Canada.
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