Despite vocal opposition from management, 3,000 of airline company WestJet's (TSX: WJA) cabin crew members have officially unionized.
The successful unionization was accomplished after the Canada Industrial Relations Board issued an interim order naming the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) as the certified bargaining unit for the WestJet cabin crew employees.
A mass e-mail sent by CUPE sent to flight attendants and obtained by the Canadian Press read: "Congratulations, we did it!!!" The message went on to say, "This is an amazing step forward for WestJetters…We knew that we could do it together. Now we begin the work of building our local and preparing to bargain our first collective agreement.”
A statement by WestJet said that the interim order will let the company make submissions by August 10 about what positions they want excluded from the scope of the newly formed bargaining unit. The interim order is specific to WestJet employees only and does not include cabin crew working for Encore or Swoop.
"We are disappointed by this outcome but respect the rights of our employees to choose their representation," Ed Sims, WestJet President said in a prepared statement. "We now shift our focus to working effectively with CUPE in the interest of success for WestJet as a whole."
Earlier on Tuesday, WestJet posted a loss of $20.8 million in the second quarter, attributed to a labour dispute with pilots, higher fuel prices and increased competition in the airline industry.
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