“Backroom Deal” Questioned

www.blacklocks.ca, Jason Unrau
Union members fearing permanent job cuts under cabinet concessions to Air Canada yesterday appealed for a hearing on a bill permitting the transfer of maintenance work out of the country. Transport Minister Marc Garneau would not meet with petitioners. Asked why, Garneau replied: “I don’t have to answer your questions.”

Bill C-10 An Act To Amend The Air Canada Public Participation Act rewrites the 1988 law that required the airline to operate maintenance shops in Winnipeg, Mississauga and Montréal as a condition of privatization. Amendments allow Air Canada to ship most work to shops in the U.S. or overseas.

“I imagine it was a backroom deal,” said Fred Hospes, president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 140. “The federal government said they did their homework on this legislation. If they had, they would have talked to us – and they didn’t.”

“If these changes go through there are no more conditions for Air Canada to do any maintenance here in Canada,” Hospes told reporters. Bill C-10 requires the airline to conduct some maintenance in Manitoba, Ontario and Québec, but at a “volume” and “level of employment” of Air Canada’s choosing.

The bill clears Air Canada of any liability after a Québec court ruled in 2015 the airline breached its obligations in transferring maintenance work to Duluth, Minnesota when its privatized subsidiary Aveos Fleet Performance went bankrupt, costing 2,600 jobs.

“There are jobs being created,” Garneau yesterday told the Commons. “The amendment actually says that there must be jobs in the provinces of Québec, Manitoba and Ontario. I cannot say any more than that.”

New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, Man.) told the House that cabinet should apologize for the “cynicism” of Bill C-10. “After years of pretending to be champions for Air Canada workers, the Liberals tabled legislation that gives Air Canada free reign to ship the good-paying jobs of 2,600 worker and their families right out of Canada,” Blaikie said.