Canadians Can’t Wait Any More for Airline Help, Unions Tell Trudeau Government

March 16, 2021 ctn_admin

The pandemic has been with us for a year, and Canada’s airlines have been devastated. But the head of one of Canada’s strongest unions says he’s grown and shaved two beards while waiting for the Trudeau government to come to the assistance of Canada’s aviation industry.

Speaking to the media on a conference call on Tuesday, Unifor national president Jerry Dias sounded like a man at his wit’s end.

“We can’t operate this way as a nation,” he said. “Air Canada is losing $14 to $16 million a day. Every aspect of our industry is in peril, and the question is, ‘How do we get through this pandemic and build back better without a strong airline industry?’”

Dias said the message he and other union leaders are sending to Ottawa is that “enough is enough.”

“We can’t procrastinate any more,” he said. “The time for solutions is today.”

Other countries around the world have come to the aid of their aviation sectors, but “the government of Canada disturbingly stands alone when it comes to turning its back on aviation workers,” Dias said.

The Trudeau government began direct talks with the airlines in early November of last year, and there have been signals that a deal is close, but so far there’s been nothing.

“They’ve been in contract negotiations for so long, not just with Air Canada, I’ve grown and shaved two beards during these negotiations,” he said. “I bargained six billion with the Detroit three (automakers) in less time than we’ve been able to put together a plan for the airline sector here in Canada.

“Look, we just gotta get this thing done.”

Unifor also recommends a national recovery plan include adapting border restrictions to safely reopen borders in line with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s Universal Standard to implement rapid testing and dynamic quarantine.

Ottawa has insisted that part of any assistance package has to be a promise that airlines will refund customers who had their flights delayed or cancelled due to COVID-19. Air Canada officials have said publicly that they have no problem with that, Dias noted.

“Nobody’s talking about a bailout,” Dias said. “We’re talking about an investment. And we’re talking about repayable loans.”

Barret Armann, president of Sunwing pilots local 7378, said the aviation industry in Canada has basically been shuttered for a year.

“More than 240,000 aviation workers have been impacted. For an entire year, airlines, unions and employess have lobbied, marched in the streets and made the devastation of our industry known to all levels of government by sharing our stories. This government has heard our voices, but hasn’t bothered to act.

“They spent an entire year ignoring the pleas of a sector that’s vital to Canadians, and the loss of highly skilled careers due to government inaction will have a lasting impact.”

Armann said the Liberal government in Ottawa appears to believe industry can restart “at the flip of a switch.” But he said pilots will need to be retrained and recertified, which will takes weeks or even a month.

“The biggest issue is, without a plan from the government all the airlines can’t plan the future for the Canadians. So we sit and we wait, and everyone wants to know what’s going to happen next winter or in January or Christmas vacation, and nobody can say. Nobody can plan routes, nobody can plan for pilots, nobody can plan for staffing levels, because there’s just no plan from the government, which will continue to hurt the sector.”

Don Ross, interim president of Unifor local 2002, said his local had 14,000 workers a year ago and is now at less than half that number.

“We’ve had members laid off since March, 2020, and they have little hope of ever being called back. Layoffs are still being issued, working hours are still being reduced, and employment is being severed to this very day.”

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