December 12, 2023 01:17 PM Eastern Standard Time

OTTAWA, Ontario–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The union representing flight attendants across Canada has launched a “12 Days of Unpaid Work” series in advance of the busy holiday travel season, to highlight the myriad ways flight attendants are forced to work for free for major airlines.

You can view the series here.

“All we want for Christmas this year is pay for time worked,” said Wesley Lesosky, President of the Airline Division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents 18,500 flight attendants at ten airlines in Canada. “Airline executives across Canada need to know that forcing overworked flight attendants to work unpaid for almost a full work-week every month is a one-way ticket to the naughty list.”

The series is part of CUPE’s Airline Division’s Unpaid Work Won’t Fly campaign, a joint effort of ten airline groups to combat the abuse of unpaid work in the airline sector which sees the average flight attendant work 35 hours per month unpaid.

As a general rule, flight attendants are only compensated while the aircraft is in motion – which means countless duties ranging from pre-flight safety checks to boarding, to deplaning, to customs and security are not paid. Learn more at unpaidworkwontfly.ca.