Air Canada Jazz is cutting 19 jobs at its London heavy maintenance depot, as new planes have lessened the demand for maintenance work, the airline said Monday.
"The company has told us that because of the introduction of new planes, they feel they do not need these bodies," said Ron Smith, director of transportation for CAW Canada.
"We are disappointed Jazz feels the need to do this and are not seeking additional work to keep members employed."
Jazz has bought 15 new Q400 Bombardier aircraft, replacing older CRJ100 Canadair regional jets, and they will not need heavy maintenance checks for about two years, said Debra Williams, manager corporate communications for Jazz, in London.
"We have more maintenance employees than are required to support the operations," said Williams. "We recognize that this will be difficult for those employees impacted and are working with the union to do all that we can to minimize the impact of these changes. "
There are now 189 heavy maintenance workers in London prior to the cuts.
Another 19 were cut from Jazz's heavy maintenance depot in Halifax and an additional seven from line maintenance operations nationally in several other cities.
Heavy maintenance is a thorough check of all an aircraft's systems after it has flown a certain number of hours, she added.
The first Q400 aircraft arrived in May.
Jazz has more than 5,000 workers nationally.
No comments:
Post a Comment