{"id":249261,"date":"2020-03-20T05:12:44","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T09:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=249261"},"modified":"2020-03-20T05:12:44","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T09:12:44","slug":"air-canada-lays-off-more-than-5000-flight-attendants-amid-covid-19-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/03\/20\/air-canada-lays-off-more-than-5000-flight-attendants-amid-covid-19-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Air Canada lays off more than 5,000 flight attendants amid COVID-19 pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0says the layoffs are temporary and employees will be returned to active duty status when the airline is able to ramp up its network schedule. (File photo<\/a> by BriYYZ\/Flickr<\/a>, CC BY-SA 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MONTREAL \u2014 A union official says Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants as the country’s largest airline cuts routes and parks planes due to COVID-19.<\/p>\n

Wesley Lesosky, who heads the Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), says the carrier is laying off about 3,600 mainline employees as well as all of Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0Rouge’s 1,549 flight attendants.<\/p>\n

The layoffs, which Lesosky says will take effect by April, affect roughly 60 per cent of flight attendants at the two segments.<\/p>\n

Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0says the layoffs are temporary and employees will be returned to active duty status when the airline is able to ramp up its network schedule.<\/p>\n

The Montreal-based company said Wednesday it will suspend the majority of its international and U.S. flights by March 31.<\/p>\n

The airline’s stock has plummeted 76 per cent in two months, dropping steeply in the past two weeks as borders close and flight demand plunges.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has been the most challenging time any of us will likely ever experience as flight attendants,\u201d Lesosky said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members have been on the front lines of this crisis since day one, and it has been a tough journey ever since. Our hearts go out to all of our members, especially those who fell sick while doing their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union has confirmed that members being laid off, or facing \u201coff-duty status,\u201d will be able to collect Employment Insurance, and also access benefits.<\/p>\n

CUPE also said it will assist laid-off members with their next steps and work to bring them back once conditions in the industry stabilize.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONTREAL \u2014 A union official says Air\u00a0Canada\u00a0is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants as the country’s largest airline cuts …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":249263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-249261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249261"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249264,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249261\/revisions\/249264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}