Air Canada is threatening to fire the president of its pilots' union after the carrier alleges he publicly questioned the safety of the airline while in uniform in a televised interview.
The country's largest carrier is demanding Captain Paul Strachan, president of the Air Canada Pilots Association, retract his statements and have the interview he conducted on the CBC's Lang & O'Leary Exchange March 20, 2012, removed from the broadcaster's website.
Air Canada alleges his comments constituted a "breach of his duties" as an employee. "Your failure to abide by the above or any repetition of any similar occurrence will result in Air Canada taking further action, up to and including discharge," Capt. Rick Allen, Air Canada senior director of flight operations, warned in a tersely worded letter to Capt. Strachan obtained by the Financial Post.
In the interview, which still appears on the CBC website, Capt. Strachan said the loyalty of Air Canada's customers is based on one overarching consideration: safety. He said that is what his members deliver, and what the 2,600 workers who recently lost their job at Aveos, the former maintenance unit of Air Canada, provided.
Asked if he thought the airline would still be safe, Capt. Strachan replied, "I'm saying certainly it's a consideration for you as a traveller going forward if we are now going to, for instance in the case of Aveos, offshore depot-level maintenance activities to third parties in other jurisdiction who may or may not be held to the same standards that our people are."
He then pointed to the example of Aeroman, the El Savador-based subsidiary of Aveos, where he alleges the typical maintenance engineer makes roughly "$15,000 or $16,000 a year."
"My question to you is: Is this the man you want maintaining the aircraft that you fly on so frequently? I suspect not," he added. Foto via Curt Lewis
Ingen kommentarer:
Legg inn en kommentar
Merk: Bare medlemmer av denne bloggen kan legge inn en kommentar.