The game is played between Mirabel and Kansas City
Yvon Laprade
Le Journal de Montreal
The CSeries approximates Mirabel.Sunday morning, 5600 Machinists at Bombardier Aerospace will vote on a draft collective agreement for the launch, eagerly awaited of these new-generation aircraft.
"We want the CSeries and we do everything we can to ensure that Bombardier chooses Mirabel," said yesterday to the Journal de Montreal, director of the machinists' union in Quebec (FTQ-IAMAW), Dave Chartrand.
The long-term contract - which is due to expire in November 2014 - provides for "operational flexibility" on the part of unionized workers.
Approach "unusual"
"We propose new ways of doing things with Bombardier. This collective agreement innovates.
"But it is intimately linked to the decision of the aircraft manufacturer to assemble the new aircraft (130 passengers) in Quebec, Mirabel," wished to clarify the union leader.
This approach to labour relations is "unusual," says Dave Chartrand. He even had a meeting with two senior leaders of Bombardier (Pierre Beaudoin and Guy Hache), June 20, on the question concerning the new draft collective agreement.
The meeting was concluded with a handshake, "says union leader.
"It is not a traditional negotiation, agreed the director of the machinists' union. The employment contract is crucial for our members.
Flexibility
"The CSeries is at stake, of course, but there are also all movement of relocation which is losing jobs in our industry," says Dave Chartrand.
According to him, machinists at Boeing are ready to "more flexibility to make the company more competitive."
Bombardier must know that they have here in Quebec, a quality of manpower that it does not find elsewhere.
"We will not be evaluated solely on the basis of wages that are paid in Quebec," he wishes to recall.
He added that this industry, which has the wind in their sails, is not immune to possible transfers of jobs where labor is cheap.
"We will be very happy if the CSeries creates 2 000 jobs, but it should not be that we lose 1 500 with a transfer of jobs.
"That is what we want to avoid. We want to find ways to keep all our jobs. It will be a diversification of production, if necessary, "insists the director to organize.
The CSeries is a program of 3 billion dollars of which the bill will be divided equally between Bombardier, governments (through loans repayable with interest) and suppliers.