Air Canada lays off 600 flight attendants OTTAWA, (Reuters) =97 Air Canada, in bankruptcy protection since Tuesday,=20 laid off 600 flight attendants Thursday morning, the president of the=20 Canadian Union of Public Employees said.The union, which represents 8,000=20 Air Canada flight attendants, said it expected "many more" job losses in=20 the weeks ahead at the airline, which is the largest in Canada and the 11th= =20 biggest in the world. "For flight attendants, for airline workers it's an=20 all-out attack on their livelihoods, their future security and their=20 ability to earn enough to support their families," said CUPE president Judy= =20 Darcy. Air Canada, facing debt of almost C$13 billion ($8.8 billion), went= =20 into bankruptcy protection Tuesday amid a slump in global airline travel=20 triggered by the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and deepened now by= =20 war in Iraq and the outbreak of the pnuemonia-like SARS illness in Canada.= =20 The Canadian Auto Workers was the only union, representing almost 10,000 of= =20 the airline's total 40,000 employees, to agree to layoffs earlier this=20 week, before Air Canada filed for bankruptcy protection. "This is not a=20 haircut, it's a decapitation and it's no more acceptable to the Canadian=20 public than it is to CUPE flight attendants," CUPE's Darcy said. *************************************************** 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 *********************************************************