First Air employees union denies support for lay-offs

Unifor Local 2002, the union that represents First Air employees, denies management’s statement that it is a “big supporter” of lay-offs and staffing changes to cargo worker positions in Iqaluit, as announced Sept 26. (FILE PHOTO)

The union that represents First Air cargo employees denied Oct. 1 that they ever supported a decision to lay off nine rotational cargo workers.

First Air management told employees Sept. 26 that it would replace the nine affected cargo worker positions with seven new positions, to be staffed by Iqaluit residents.

The airline’s vice president of commercial affairs, Bert van der Stege, said Sept. 30 that Unifor Local 2002 is a “big supporter” of the change, which the union denies.

Unifor, a national union that represents First Air employees through Local 2002, told Nunatsiaq News that the northern airline hasn’t explained the reasons for the staffing changes.

“We haven’t seen how they came to their conclusion,” Leslie Dias, the union’s national representative, said Oct. 1.

“Friday night [Sept. 26], after they made the announcement to the employee group, we asked them for the information, their data, as to how they came to this conclusion,” Dias told Nunatsiaq News.

“They told us they can’t provide that for two weeks. Yet they used that data to produce their new schedule, that determined they were laying people off.”

Dias said the union knew full well that First Air was evaluating their staffing requirements this year.

“We had bargained a collective agreement in May and June, and there was discussion about Iqaluit scheduling,” she said.

“It was not a surprise that they were evaluating it, but our expectation was that once they completed that evaluation, they would have presented us with the results of their findings, and what they intended to do as a result.

“That process didn’t happen at all.”

Van der Stege could not immediately be reached for comment, Oct. 1.

Asked about the changes Sept. 30, the vice president said the airline intends to phase out rotational cargo staff who fly to Iqaluit for “four-week on, four-week off” shifts, in favour of full-time staff who live in Iqaluit. Seven new positions will replace the nine, and the new employees will work a six-week on, three-week off shift, he said.

The laid-off employees will have the option of taking other similar jobs with the company, based on seniority, he said.

The company will first assess “who wants what position,” and then “determine who will end up working for First Air in Iqaluit, and who will want to work for First Air somewhere else,” van der Stege said Sept. 30.

Unifor has asked to see First Air’s reasoning for the lay-offs and new positions sooner than management offered.

“Until we get the data, we’re in a holding pattern,” Dias said.

Unifor is not against the airline’s plan to hire employees who live in Iqaluit, she said.

“But we can’t make a comment or support what the company’s doing until we have an opportunity to,” she said.

The union and the airline have “always had a reasonably decent relationship in sorting things out,” Dias said. “I hope this isn’t a sign of a new way of how they intend to do business.”