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The unions representing flight attendants at Air Canada, Sunwing and WestJet stand in solidarity with the American flight attendant unions who expressed safety concerns about the Boeing 737 Max flying again soon. The Air Canada Component of CUPE (Air Canada Mainline and Air Canada Rouge), CUPE local 4055 (Sunwing), and CUPE local 4070 (WestJet, WestJet Encore and Swoop) are calling on Transport Canada to take its responsibility in ensuring the safety of these aircraft.
The safety of passengers and crew must always come first. The federal government’s decision to ground the Boeing 737 Max in Canada was the right thing to do. Given the record of Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration in that file, it will now be up to Transport Canada to provide assurances that these aircraft are fully compliant and safe for our members and the travelling public.
Like the U.S. flight attendant unions, CUPE must be consulted before Transport Canada makes the decision to allow the Boeing 737 Max to fly in Canada’s skies again. The union said it needs access to all the information required to assess the safety of these aircraft. The highest possible safety standards will be called for to avoid another tragedy. Simply stating these aircraft are safe does not make it so.
Air Canada, Sunwing, and WestJet are the three Canadian airlines operating the Boeing 737 Max. CUPE represents more than 13,000 flight attendants working at those airlines.
