AVEOS FIGHT HITS QUEBEC
Charest threatens legal action to save jobs
Premier Jean Charest’s Liberals joined the opposition Parti Québécois yesterday in a unanimous motion calling for “all possible legal recourse” to maintain the Air Canada maintenance base in Montreal in an effort to save the jobs of 1,800 Aveos employees in Quebec. Air Canada argues it is in full compliance with 1988’s Air Canada privatization act, which requires it to do its maintenance in Montreal, Winnipeg and Toronto. Former Aveos employees protest for the third straight day in Montreal and voice their concern for the future in a video by Phil Carpenter at montrealgazette.com/videos
QUEBEC – Premier Jean Charest said Wednesday that his government will pursue all means, including legal action, to save the jobs of 1,800 Aveos employees in Quebec who have lost their jobs maintaining Air Canada aircraft.
“We won’t close that door,” the premier said.
Aveos, a spinoff company that acquired Air Canada’s aircraft maintenance operations across Canada in 2007, abruptly informed its 2,600 employees on Tuesday that it was insolvent and they no longer had jobs.
Aveos said Air Canada did not give it as many contracts as expected, while the airline said the prices Aveos charged for work were not competitive.
Charest’s Liberals joined the opposition Parti Québécois Wednesday in a unanimous motion calling for “all possible legal recourse” to maintain the Air Canada maintenance base in Montreal, as was agreed in the 1988 Air Canada privatization act.
PQ leader Pauline Marois asked the premier whether he had called Prime Minister Stephen Harper to express Quebec’s concerns about the Aveos closing and the loss of jobs.
Marois’s question went unanswered but Economic Development Minister Sam Hamad said Quebec’s justice department is already looking into possible legal action against Air Canada.
“We will not accept this situation,” Hamad said, adding that he has spoken to his Manitoba counterpart and federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel.
Hamad added that Quebec is willing to work with the other provinces in reversing “this savage closure” and the priority should be ensuring the Aveos employees have jobs.
The Quebec minister also said he is confident Aveos can emerge from creditor protection, allowing the company to work out payment arrangements with other companies to which it owes money.
Charest noted that when a company is in trouble, usually employees are given warning signs. “In this case, suddenly they announced the closure,” the premier noted.
Jean Poirier, general president of the International Association of Machinists, representing Aveos workers, who led a union delegation to the Quebec National Assembly Wednesday, said union delegations were also going to the Ontario, Manitoba and B.C. legislatures, seeking the support of all provinces where Aveos workers live.
Poirier conceded that the workers are subject to the federal labour code, not provincial laws, but said the union is asking the provinces to intervene because the federal government has refused.
Poirier said Ottawa considers the dispute between Air Canada and Aveos a private matter.
The union argues that Ottawa has an obligation to intervene, under the 1988 Air Canada privatization law.
And Poirier said that even after the former crown corporation spun off its maintenance operations, the main- tenance employees remained on the Air Canada payroll until last year.
“The best way to respect the law today is very easy,” Poirier said. “The facilities are there, the hangars are there. They belong to Air Canada.
“The equipment is there. The aircraft are there. They just have to recall the employees and the law will be respected.”
Poirier said the union intends to go to Ottawa next week to press its case, when the House of Commons resumes sitting.