Air Execs Face Senate Grilling

Tom Korski, www.blacklocks.ca
Senators are demanding Air Canada disclose how much it saved by illegally outsourcing jobs to Duluth, Minnesota. The call yesterday came as cabinet appealed for quick passage of a bill shielding the airline from liability for breaching its 1988 terms of privatization.

“I’ll ask Air Canada how much money they’re saving,” said Senator Donald Plett (Conservative-Man.); “Are unions more costly here than in Duluth?”

Bill C-10 An Act To Amend The Air Canada Public Participation Act rewrites the 28-year old law that required the airline to keep heavy maintenance shops in Canada. The original Act obliged the airline to “maintain operational and overhaul centres” in Winnipeg, Mississauga and Montréal. Amendments allow Air Canada to decide the “volume” of maintenance in Canada “as well as the level of employment”.

“I’m leaning towards the negative side of this bill,” said Senator Plett; “There has to be a net benefit here for the Province of Manitoba if we are to move forward with what I consider a bit of a suspect bill, particularly in regards to timing.”

Senate sponsors have acknowledged the bill must be passed by a July 15 Supreme Court filing deadline if Air Canada is to fend off liability claims. The Québec Court of Appeal in 2015 ruled the airline broke the law when it outsourced some 2,600 maintenance jobs out of the country.

Testifying at the Senate transport committee, Transport Minister Marc Garneau said it “is timely to act now”: “Airlines can and do go bankrupt,” Garneau said; “Maintenance represents a major part of airline costs. You have an airline company that must compete with others that are not subject to such restrictions.”

“The alternative to Bill C-10 is not the status quo,” said Garneau; “There is no reason to believe the current litigation would lead to re-establishing the exact number of jobs.”

‘Somebody Got An Advantage’

“We know Air Canada’s actions violate the current Act,” said Kevin Rebeck, president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour; “Canada has failed to hold Air Canada to account and enforce the law. Instead the federal government seemed to enter into secret negotiations with Air Canada.”

Rebeck told the transport committee that Bill C-10 “amounts to a total and complete gutting” of the terms of privatization for the former Crown carrier. “That was the promise that was made; that was part of the deal,” he said.

“The deal was they would live up to maintaining good jobs,” said Rebeck; “They want to be relieved of providing good Canadian jobs, and that’s wrong.”

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers urged that senators amend the bill to reinstate specific, minimum job requirements on the airline. “Our amendments force Air Canada to back up its vague promises,” said Fred Hospes, directing general chair of District 140.

David Chartrand, the union’s Québec coordinator, noted Air Canada inherited a fleet of taxpayer-funded aircraft when it was privatized in 1988. “Why are they being treated differently? I don’t think the Crown gave 109 planes to WestJet,” he said.

“Somebody got a leg up; somebody got an advantage,” said Chartrand; “If we give that away, we have no more bargaining power”; “What’s being proposed is not only to take away a moral obligation, but also a legal one.”

The Senate transport committee resumes hearings today with scheduled testimony from Air Canada executives.