September 29, 2025 

Participants for AMFA
Ian Evershed – Region IV Director, Committee Co-Chair
Lee Seham – Acting Committee Co-Chair
Justin Lang – Airline Representative
Michael Emery – Negotiator-at-Large
Samuel Seham – Legal Counsel

Participants for Jazz Aviation
Kirk Newhook – VP Employee Relations 
Suzanne Asseff – Director Employee Relations
Kal Rebin – VP Maintenance
Mark Lenglet – Director Line Maintenance
Maze Hobeyn – Director Components & Stores
Stephen Boa – Manager Labour Relations
Christine Stolarz – Employee Relations Admin/Analyst 
Kris Langevin – Manager Labour Relations

The AMFA-Jazz Line Negotiating Committee (the “Committee”) is providing this update to the membership at Jazz Aviation (Jazz). This is the only official source of negotiating communications.

On September 23-25, 2025, representatives from Jazz and AMFA met in Calgary, to engage in their fifth session of collective agreement negotiations. Negotiations were led by AMFA Region IV Director Ian Evershed and AMFA General Counsel Lee Seham for the Union, and Jazz VP Employee Relations Kirk Newhook for the Company. AMFA-JTS negotiating representatives Joel Moores and Craig Clouter also attended these sessions, as well as numerous Calgary-based observers.

The first day of negotiations was sharply disappointing. With respect to economics, AMFA submitted a revised comprehensive proposal at the close of the last negotiating session, and it was understood that the carrier would provide a response on Day 1 in Calgary. Nevertheless, the Company took the position that it would withhold any further economic proposal until progress was made with respect to what it has characterized as “productivity enhancements.”

Equally disappointing was the lack of progress with respect to scope. In response to management’s asserted position that it has the right to continue outsourcing work that it “currently” outsources, the Company had committed at the last session to providing a comprehensive list of the types of work purportedly falling within this category.  Instead, the Company provided a list that it characterized as illustrative. Needless to say, providing a list that merely provides “examples” of work that the Company wishes to outsource defeats the entire purpose of the exercise. In short, the promised response that AMFA negotiators had been waiting over two weeks to receive never materialized.

On the positive side, the Parties reached tentative agreements on the following five contract articles for both the Jazz and JTS collective agreements[1]:

Article 8 – Relief and Special Assignments
Article 10 – Seniority, Staff Reduction, Lay Off and Recall
Article 11 – Leave of Absence and Sick Leave
Article 13 – Statutory Holiday
Article 15 – Vacations

Of particular note, all DOR references have been removed from Articles 13 and 15. Workers with ten years or more of service will be entitled to all Article 13/15 rights previously limited to pre-DOR employees. For employees with fewer than ten years of seniority, 57 hours of Stat Bank will be made available as biddable vacation.

In addition, the Parties have agreed to a process for creating additional slots so that all earned vacation may be used.

Negotiations are scheduled to continue in Vancouver from October 15–17, with both AMFA-JTS and AMFA-Jazz Line representatives attending. As always, we encourage our members to attend as observers.

Stay engaged, remain informed, and continue to support the Negotiating Committee, as that support increases the ability to bargain a collective agreement that your hard work deserves. Your AMFA representatives will provide regular updates throughout the negotiating process. Thank you for your support.

Fraternally,

AMFA-Jazz Line Negotiating Committee