CAW reaches tentative agreement with Air Canada, picket lines come down
By Contributor
The CAW reached a tentative agreement with Air Canada earlier Thursday after more than 12 weeks of negotiations with Air Canada.
After the tentative agreement was announced, picket lines were taken down and plans were established for ratification votes over the next two weeks on the new four-year agreement.
CAW President Ken Lewenza said the new agreement is an important achievement for the 3,800 CAW members at Air Canada.
Lewenza said the new agreement covers wages, pensions, benefits and all other key issues in bargaining. But he said the contentious issue of pension benefits for new hires will be sent to arbitration where the union will present the case for continuing a defined benefit pension plan.
The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service provides dispute resolution and dispute prevention assistance to trade unions and employers under the jurisdiction of the Canada Labour Code.
The existing defined benefit pension plan remains unchanged until January 1, 2013, when there will be some modifications to the plan.
Lewenza declined to provide details of the wage increases until the ratification meetings, but said the wage package was good.
He said the federal government’s push for back to work legislation is evidence of how it’s going to behave now that it has a majority.
“Don’t think for a moment that government intervention settled this strike, far from it. It is always better for us to negotiate a contract than to have it imposed,” Lewenza said.
