News online
Solidarity protest against airline maintenance worker cuts in Canada
4 April 2007
 |  |  view larger image | | | Demonstrators brave the rain in support of sacked maintenance workers (Photo courtesy of IAMAW Local Lodge 764) | |
Hundreds of workers joined a protest at Vancouver airport, Canada, last week, in a show of solidarity with sacked airline maintenance workers.
Members of the US ITF-affiliated International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW), employed by Air Canada, staged the protest on 24 March after management announced that 860 heavy maintenance jobs would be axed. Among the demonstrators were other unionised airport workers, who joined the protest in support of the sacked employees.
In mid-March, Air Canada stated that 700 IAMAW members would be made redundant from its Vancouver maintenance facility, and that a further 161 members would be laid off temporarily. The move follows the termination of a maintenance contract with Delta Airlines. The US-based Delta signed a five-year deal two years ago with Air Canada Technical Services for the heavy maintenance of its wide-body Boeing 767 jets. Delta is terminating the contract early and transferring the work offshore to El Salvador and China.
Members are angry over Air Canada’s failure to seek new work for the Vancouver facility. Their protest called for government intervention to stop the export of the jobs to overseas maintenance facilities. Currently highly-skilled and well-paying, the positions are being transferred to save on labour costs.
“The maintenance of modern transport aircraft is a labour-intensive and technically-challenging industry that must not be controlled solely by the narrow profit motives of corporations like Air Canada,” said Jim Coller, IAMAW District 140 President and Directing General Chairperson.
The ITF is backing the union’s action day on 17 May in protest against the increasing barrage of measures that are undermining workers’ conditions. These include the outsourcing of work to overseas facilities.
Back to current news online stories
|
