{"id":15607,"date":"2021-06-02T22:49:28","date_gmt":"2021-06-03T05:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/district140.iamaw.ca\/?p=15607"},"modified":"2021-06-02T22:49:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T05:49:28","slug":"iamaw-canada-disheartening-deplorable-disgraceful-and-disgusting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/?p=15607","title":{"rendered":"IAMAW CANADA – Disheartening, Deplorable, Disgraceful and Disgusting!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disheartening, Deplorable, Disgraceful and Disgusting!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is beyond\u00c2\u00a0disheartening\u00c2\u00a0for Air Canada Executives to be rewarding themselves so handsomely with these obscene bonuses during the worst performance in this corporation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history. Our members were rewarded with unprecedented layoff notices during the same period, with no opportunity to recover their losses.\u00c2\u00a0This absolutely disgusting!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Stan Pickthall, IAM Canadian General Vice-President. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153When the federal government gave Air Canada $5.9 billion in April, 2021, there were specific conditions to the aid package,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n

The IAM has learned that while Air Canada was negotiating the bailout with Ottawa, they were\u00c2\u00a0making sure their top executives would get bonuses despite an operating loss of nearly $3.8 billion due to the pandemic. The company also took advantage of almost $656 million from the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) to help it through the worst of the downturn in air travel caused by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would be interested to know if Air Canada negotiators provided full disclosure of these bonuses to Canada\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Feds when they bargained for $5.37 billion in public funds. Who knew about these bonuses, and when?\u00c2\u00a0If they knew, then it is disgraceful that they kept this from the voting public!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Stated Pickthall.<\/p>\n

The bonuses were awarded to executives and management while the company was negotiating the bailout package with Ottawa. The package came with certain conditions from the government, including a cap on executive compensation, new environmental disclosures, and a guarantee that the company will refund passengers for cancelled flights.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The IAM appealed vigorously to Air Canada in our efforts to extend the CEWS program to all employees last summer. Our efforts fell on deaf ears, as the majority of our members were disenfranchised from this public support, which would have been at minimal cost to Air Canada,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said\u00c2\u00a0Keith Aiken, IAM Airline Coordinator.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Air Canada should be ashamed. During the past year, some 20,000 employees were sent home on furloughs, and Air Canada refused to entertain available government programs to help a majority of their workforce citing increased costs. They didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have money to help their own employees put food on the table, but found the money to reward their executive team on their performance slashing thousands of jobs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Fred Hospes, President & Directing General Chairperson of the IAM\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Transportation District 140 had this to say: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deplorable that Air Canada would give executive bonuses while claiming revenue losses and willfully violating the frontline workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights and working conditions. They deliberately delayed arbitration remedies and financial compensation that are rightfully owed to their frontline workers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all while claiming to have empty pockets. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s absolutely despicable.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Air Canada paid bonuses of $10 million to their top executives, although they allocated $20 million for this purpose. Before leaving the company in February 2021, Calin Rovinescu earned $9.25 million in total in 2020. Current CEO, Michael Rousseau, earned $2.93 million.<\/p>\n

The IAMAW represents over 55,000 members across Canada who work in the aviation, aerospace and air transportation sector. We have been advocating for our members, and all workers, ever since the pandemic hit Canadians and our economy.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u201c 30 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c<\/p>\n

For more information:
\nFrank Saptel
\nCommunications Representative, IAM Canada
\nfsaptel@iamaw.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Disheartening, Deplorable, Disgraceful and Disgusting! \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is beyond\u00c2\u00a0disheartening\u00c2\u00a0for Air Canada Executives to be rewarding themselves so handsomely with these obscene bonuses during the worst performance in this corporation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history. Our members were rewarded with unprecedented layoff notices during the same period, with no opportunity to recover their losses.\u00c2\u00a0This absolutely disgusting!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Stan Pickthall, IAM Canadian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[73,63,67,61,62],"class_list":["post-15607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bulletins-en","tag-aircanada","tag-canada","tag-dl140","tag-iam","tag-union"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15607"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15607\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15608,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15607\/revisions\/15608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/one.iamaw.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}