This week, a member of the Communist Revolution editorial board sat down with an Air Canada flight attendant to discuss the looming strike. The interview captures the real situation that flight attendants are facing, the exploitation and mistreatment they experience at the hands of the Air Canada bosses. It also captures the fighting mood that exists among the workers, and the sense of solidarity they are feeling not just among themselves, but from the Canadian public.
Air Canada is doing everything in its power to crush the workers. They are trying to get the government to force the union into binding arbitration. But with the militant spirit among union members, and the level of support from the public, the flight attendants have the opportunity to fight back, and win.
This is a pivotal struggle, not just for flight attendants, but for the entire working class. As recession approaches, and Mark Carney prepares massive cuts, workers in all sectors will come under attack. A victory for flight attendants will set a positive example for the battles to come.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Can you tell us about what it’s like working at Air Canada, and what you’re fighting for?
A: We’re treated as disposable. They’re trying to take advantage of us. Any service that you get as a passenger, that comes from the flight attendants. Air Canada only cares about the corporate bottom line.
We’ve been doing unpaid work for a long time, 20 years ago it was the same. But CUPE has spent a lot of time bringing this to the public’s attention, and it’s good to see people talking about it.
We have a strict mandatory check-in time, at minimum one hour before departure time. Most flight attendants arrive even earlier, as a courtesy to the rest of the crew, because we operate as a crew. You get there maybe an hour and a half early.
Then there’s the boarding process. You attach the gate, check the passengers in, get them on board, help them load their luggage in the overhead compartments. Helping with the luggage, that’s not in the contract, and because it’s before take-off, we’re not paid for any injuries from lifting luggage.
If there’s a delay, we’re not paid. When passengers come off the flight, that’s unpaid. I’ve been on flights where it takes an hour and a half to deboard the plane. If you lose your airpods and stay behind to look for them, we have to stay behind with the passenger, by law, but we’re not paid.
For flight attendants working short-haul flights, they can do three, easily four, flights a day. Imagine each one is only an hour in the air, but check-in is minimum one hour before. Then you get off, and wait for your next flight, which could be another three hours, unpaid.
When there’s turbulence, if we’re injured, we’re not covered, because we’re supposed to be in our jump seats, buckled in. But our contracts say that if there’s turbulence, we need to check on passengers. I know flight attendants who have broken their back, literally broken their spine, because they were hit by turbulence while in the air. They had to take two years off, with no support from the company, and then come back permanently injured.
Most flight attendants are broken-hearted by the way they’re treated by the company. People love the job, that’s why they take it. But it literally feels like being in an abusive relationship. It feels like getting gaslighted and tricked every day.
Q: There was a 99.7 per cent strike vote. What’s the mood like among your coworkers?
A: We’re here because we want to serve people, we’re people-pleasers. There’s not a culture where we stick together.
The ten year contract that just ended—ten years, that’s unheard of in labour law—that was a coercive and tricky move. There was a large demographic of new junior flight attendants who were offered a $5,000 signing bonus. They were young, and didn’t know better. They took the $5,000 and signed our rights away.
The culture was like crabs in a bucket. It’s always been a pleasant place to work, but there’s so many of us, and it’s such an oppressive company culture, and there’s not a lot of money involved. So people bicker. When people are struggling it’s easier to be divided and conquered. That’s been kind of the way that things have been.
But this is like, total unity. I’ve never experienced this before. Even the public. Friends of mine are doing flights, and the public is like, the passengers are talking to them and congratulating them, and saying, “we hope for a good deal”. It’s crazy, people see what kind of gaslighter this company is. I think they see it.
The fact that people came together for this strike just speaks volumes about how fed up everyone is. It’s given everyone a feeling of solidarity and optimism. Even though it’s unlikely that Air Canada will go down easy—or even give us a fair deal.
I think the only hope we have right now is the perception that there really is unity. And actually the mood, I’ve heard, in Canada, is electric [they are currently overseas]. I’m just glued to social media. But everybody is like, there’s solidarity. This has never happened before. It’s a big deal.
Q: What do you think about how the union has been dealing with this?
A: I think CUPE is handling it well, thank god.
The team that handed us the 10-year contract was incredibly poor. The company has been so bad, it felt like we were unrepresented. We pay union dues, that would have been better spent on labour lawyers.
But now it’s good. I think they’re doing a great job. There’s too much at stake, We’ve been boiling over this 10-year contract for years. Now we have a chance.
The problem is Air Canada is lying to the press, and has the government in their pocket. Of course they’re giving these people perks. Their narrative is they’re trying to negotiate fairly, but it’s not true. They’re trying to force us into binding arbitration. If they know they can walk away from the table, what’s the point?
The press conference yesterday was lies upon lies.
For example, one of the lies is she said flight attendants make $70k a year. It’s not true. Max pay, I know people at max pay, and it’s at $55k. But the point is, starting wages, these people are clearing $19k a year. So it’s really reasonable what’s being asked for.
Q: Is there anything else that you want people to know?
A: It’s the way of the world, you know? They’ve cut service. There’s these high-density aircraft they have. Air Canada is putting profits over people.
There used to be more flight attendants per capita. Now there’s more people, and less flight attendants, so the entire flight we’re running around like chickens with their heads cut off. It’s less safe. And it’s because of money.
The flight attendants do this job because they like it. It’s not for the money. Everyone I know has two or three jobs. They’re doing it out of the joy of being out there, the travel, working with people.
But it’s difficult, it’s draining. There’s the sleep schedule, being in the air all the time, dealing with one passenger after another, and then there’s an abusive employer.
We just want a fair deal. So many flight attendants live below the poverty line. It would be nice to have a fair deal.
Air Canada is pushing this narrative where we’re the enemy. But we’re literally with the public. We signed up to be in service. The people who make all the decisions, they’re not there serving the public. They’re there for the bottom dollar, that’s it.
And you know what’s exciting? Judging from the tone online—YouTube, even under the CTV videos, all of it—under AirCanada’s Facebook page, it’s fascinating—all of the comments are from the public and they seem to be fully supporting us. They’re getting blasted online and I’m so heartened to see that. Because this is kind of feeling like a movement at this point.
I’m so encouraged by what’s happening. If it weren’t for the public, and our solidarity, and the fact that the union and the bargaining committee has been doing such a good job, thank god, we would have zero power, and this company would just plow over us like they always do.
This really seems like more than just an Air Canada, flight-attendant-getting-paid-properly thing. This seems like a national thing where a lot of people are just fed up with the way that the government is run, the way that these corporations are run, the way that they clearly don’t read the room.
