Air Canada ratifies cost-cutting deal MONTREAL (Reuters) =97 Air Canada's 7,000 sales clerks ratified a=20 cost-cutting deal that will result in 800 layoffs to help the insolvent=20 airline emerge from bankruptcy protection, the union said Friday. The=20 ratification is another step in Air Canada's complex restructuring and=20 follows similar vote by its dispatchers and regional affiliate pilots. The= =20 airline is seeking to save up to C$1.1 billion a year through deals=20 negotiated with its different unions, which have until the end of the month= =20 to complete a ratification vote. The carrier is trying to restructure about= =20 C$13 billion in debt and lease obligations in the wake of a serious=20 downturn in the travel industry. The sales clerks, represented by the=20 Canadian Auto Workers union, voted 71 percent in favor of the new six-year= =20 labor contract, the union said, adding that about 60 percent of the union=20 members cast a vote. The sales clerks will get the same salary, health-care= =20 benefits and pensions, but will have fewer vacations and lower monetary=20 compensations such shift premiums, the union said. "Many will be losing a=20 decent paying job and others will have to return to working conditions that= =20 we fought hard to change decades ago," local union president Anne Davidson= =20 said in a release. *************************************************** 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/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************