August 19, 2025

Participants for AMFA
Bret Oestrech – National President
Lee Seham – Acting Committee 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 August 11-13, 2025, Jazz and AMFA representatives met in Halifax for the third round of collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The negotiations were led by AMFA General Counsel Lee Seham and VP Employee Relations Kirk Newhook.

During these negotiations the Parties reached agreement on, and TA’d, an additional two contract articles[1]: Article 6 – Hours of Work and Article 14 – Cash Bank and Time Off.

With respect to Article 6, new provisions obtained in response to membership-generated proposals included:

• a maximum of no more than 80% of a base will work night shift;
   
• the elimination of all DOR references relating to scheduling;
   
• limiting mid-year shift schedule changes to one per year;
   
• increasing from time and half to double time for hours worked where an employee does not have minimum hours off prior to his/her scheduled shift or overtime shift;
   
• shift trade requests submitted eight (8) days or more in advance of a shift trade will be deemed approved unless management responds within two (2) business days;
   
• shift trade requests submitted fewer than eight (8) days in advance of the shift trade will be deemed approved unless management responds within one (1) business day;
   
• an employee may shift trade with him or herself once per ninety (90) days subject to Company approval, which approval may not be unreasonably withheld.
   
• each year all shift schedules will be opened for seniority bid in each location between October 1 and no later than October 15 (unless otherwise agreed) and the Company will pay to the Union a penalty of $500 (five hundred dollars) for each day that the shift bid is delayed.

To meet the Company’s stated scheduling needs, the Parties have also tentatively agreed to replace shift differentials with equivalent afternoon and night shift premiums.

With respect to Article 14, all post-DOR references have been eliminated, and annual cash bank contributions have been increased to $8,500.

The parties also commenced negotiations with respect to proposed revisions to Article 15 – Vacations.  We regret to report that, in this context, the Company asserted that it had the right to deny any bids on full weeks where an employee did not have sufficient vacation hours to cover the week. AMFA’s negotiators advised the Company that it would consider any such bid denials to constitute violations of the collective agreement.

AMFA negotiators also passed a proposal for Article 2 – Union Recognition, which would limit subcontracting.  The Company has not responded to that proposal to date.

Negotiations are scheduled to continue in Toronto on August 26 through August 28.  They were originally scheduled for Vancouver; however, the Parties agreed to re-locate the venue in order to avoid the possibility of cancellation due to travel disruptions. 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