Union reaches deal with Air Canada on layoffs OTTAWA (Reuters) =97 The union representing some 10,000 airport and=20 reservations employees at struggling Air Canada said Monday it had reached= =20 an interim deal with the airline to lay off 1,060 staff. Buzz Hargrove,=20 head of the Canadian Auto Workers union, told a news conference that the=20 layoffs =97 to last for 45 weeks =97 would save the airline C$35 million= ($24=20 million) to C$40 million. The union had already agreed to forgo a 2-1/2%=20 pay increase, which was supposed to have gone into effect on Tuesday, for a= =20 savings of C$6.5 million. "We see absolutely no alternative," said=20 Hargrove, speaking after having met federal Transport Minister David=20 Collenette to tell him of the need to make sure Air Canada does not go into= =20 bankruptcy. Hargrove said the airline was asking for C$65 million in=20 savings from the union, out of a total of C$650 million in requested annual= =20 labor cost savings, and he would return to the table with the airline to=20 work on the rest of the savings. "We wouldn't be entering into the=20 agreement that we did and we wouldn't be looking to get back to the table=20 unless we saw a train coming down that tunnel at full speed and we're in=20 the way," he said. "We think we can find the C$65 million annually without= =20 unduly harming our membership. We've got a lot of ideas, we just need more= =20 time to spend at the bargaining table," he said. This did not necessarily=20 mean more layoffs, he added. Technically, the union had an agreement that=20 prevented any layoffs until March 2004, but this new interim agreement will= =20 override that deal for the 1,060 positions. After 45 weeks, they are=20 supposed to return to employment. The 1,060 layoffs come out of the union's= =20 7,000 workers at the mainline carrier, he said. Some 3,000 at the company's= =20 regional carriers are not affected. In his talks with Collenette, Hargrove= =20 stressed the importance of a full-sized national flagship carrier. He=20 suggested Canada could take an equity stake in the carrier, something=20 strenuously opposed by Air Canada's competition and by the main opposition= =20 party in Parliament. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week:http://www.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************