Air Canada bag tossers should get tossed

Well, now we know what it takes to get fired if you’re an Air Canada baggage handler. Two staffers were caught on video dropping carry-on baggage several metres into a bin below — the cabin was overloaded so carry-on had to be transferred to the baggage hold. The video went viral and the employees were suspended.

Credit Air Canada for recognizing that such blatant contempt for customer service and property had to be punished severely. Air Canada said that the two “have been advised that their employment will be terminated pending the outcome of our investigation.”

Wait — what’s that? They have been suspended, and will be terminated, pending the outcome of the investi- gation? The identity of the baggage tossers is clear, it’s not open to interpretation. Watch it on YouTube and it’s all there in plain sight on video shot from a nearby window. Laptop computers, other electronic devices, delicate personal belongings — who knows what may have been tossed negligently to the bin below?

Care to guess what’s next? The union gets involved, appeals pending dismissals, and the baggage tossers get their jobs back? Air Canada has a dismal customer service reputation as it is. The company would be wise to make sure this works out right, and that the public knows the pair ends up getting tossed themselves.

Howard Elliott