Air Canada’s maintenance supplier shuts down plants
By Andrea Woo, Vancouver Sun March 18, 2012 10:02 PM
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Air Canada’s maintenance supplier shuts down plants
Air Canada’s maintenance supplier shuts down plants
Photograph by: Tim Wimborne , Reuters
The company that provides aircraft maintenance to Air Canada shut its plants in three Canadian cities suddenly on Sunday, laying off up to 400 employees in Vancouver and around 2,700 nationally.
Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. posted notices on its plant doors, sent workers home and called employees in simultaneous shutdowns in Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal, said Fred Hospes, chairman of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District 140 Western Region.
The company told workers the layoffs were effectively immediately, and not to go into work today (Monday).
“It’s the most disrespectful way that I’ve ever seen ... something like this happen,” Hospes told The Sun. “They didn’t even phone the union to advise the union that they were going to close their facilities and cease their operations. We ended up finding out through our members.”
Hospes said of about 2,700 employees laid off, between 350 and 400 workers are each in Vancouver and Winnipeg. The remainder are in Montreal, where Aveos has engine, component and heavy maintenance facilities.
Aveos is the private firm created in 2007 when Air Canada converted its technical services division, which did all of the maintenance and repair work on its planes, into a stand-alone operation.
Air Canada makes up about 90 per cent of Aveos’ customer base, but the union says Air Canada has been sending maintenance work that’s exclusive to Aveos to other companies recently.
Hospes said Aveos had shown indications of financial difficulties in recent weeks.
“About three weeks ago, they had announced to us that they were going to lay off 97 people,” Hospes said.
“When we analyzed the layoffs ... operationally, it didn’t make a lot of sense. You could determine that it was a quick cash grab.”
Earlier this year, the company had said it was looking to subcontract some of the Air Canada work due to a shortage of employees.
“Then they came back and turn around and say that they’re laying off,” Hospes said. “It just didn’t make any sense.”
An arbitrator eventually rescinded many of the 97 layoffs.
In a memo obtained by the Montreal Gazette, arbitrator Martin Teplitsky said at hearings on March 5 and 9 that he “could not understand how, a month ago, the company could request permission to outsource bargaining unit work due to a lack of staff and now says it has surplus staff.”
The closure affects everyone from highly skilled, licensed aircraft technicians who make $35 per hour to data entry clerks.
A rally planned for today at the Vancouver International Airport was originally intended to protest the federal government’s interference in the bargaining process at Air Canada by imposing back-to-work legislation.
It is now expected to protest the Aveos closures as well.
No one from Aveos or Air Canada responded to requests for comment by The Sun on Sunday night.
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