Air Canada flight attendants rail over $100 gift card $5 at Starbucks that they received from their employer for their good services, while the CEO’s salary more than tripled in 2022.
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According to information collected by TVA Nouvelles, several airline employees received a $5 discount at the popular Seattle brand in early April. Air Canada would like to thank the employees for their hard work during the spring break.
“Thank you for your excellent work during March Break!” reads the emailed message signed by Andrew Yiu, the airline’s vice president of in-flight services.
Photo from a journalistic source
A gift that does not pass
This so-called “staff recognition” offer does not pass among the flight attendants who demonstrated on April 26 at Montreal-Trudeau airport for the improvement of their salary conditions.
“Nearly 20 to 25% of our time at work in uniform is unpaid…while the CEO of the company, Michael Rousseau, granted himself a 233% increase in his remuneration”, s’ protests Guillaume Leduc, of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), which represents Air Canada flight attendants.
Not enough for a latte
Relying on the most recent menu of the Starbucks chain in Quebec, the flight attendants of the largest Canadian carrier will not have enough of their gift card to buy a small size of latte.
For several flight attendants contacted by TVA Nouvelles, this attention is much more a slingshot than a gift.
“I respectfully return your card to you as I consider it more of an insult,” a flight attendant wrote to her company, according to an email we obtained.
“It almost makes you want to write to him in French”, ironically another in reference to the difficulties of Michael Rousseau to express himself in the language of Molière.
The discontent is all the greater since several employees received this gift card a few days after learning that their CEO’s salary had tripled.
$12.4 million for the CEO
The end of the restrictions on the remuneration of the company’s senior executives, imposed by Ottawa in 2021 against federal aid, has in fact increased Michael Rousseau’s salary from $ 3.7 million to $ 12.4 million. Air Canada is sorry if this attention has “been misinterpreted by some”.
“It was a small gesture intended to mark the arrival of spring and express our gratitude,” said Christophe Hennebelle, the airline’s vice-president of communications.
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