{"id":84819,"date":"2020-06-25T17:11:24","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T07:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/?p=84819"},"modified":"2020-06-25T17:11:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T07:11:24","slug":"last-resort-westjet-layoffs-hit-3000-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/2020\/06\/last-resort-westjet-layoffs-hit-3000-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Last resort\u2019: WestJet layoffs hit 3,000 workers"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_84821\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-84821\" style=\"width: 1170px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-post-84819 wp-image-84821 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1170\" height=\"660\" srcset=\"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021-770x420.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021-770x420.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021-150x85.jpg 150w, https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/boeing-737-700-westjet-las-021-768x433.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1170px) 100vw, 1170px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-84821\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A WestJet Boeing 737-700.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Canada\u2019s WestJet has announced a series of changes to the organisation\u2019s structure on 24 June, including cuts to 3,333 employees.<\/p>\n<p>The company&#8217;s CEO, Ed Sims, called the decision &#8220;difficult, but essential&#8221;, adding that the move was necessary &#8220;to provide security to our remaining 10,000 WestJetters, and to carry on the work of transforming our business&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, the airline has had to ground nearly two-thirds its fleet after border shutdowns prompted it to suspend most of its schedule \u2014 including all international trips \u2014 in late March. Accounting for the latest cuts, costs have also been slashed by around 60 per cent.<\/p>\n<p>The cuts will affect employees across its operation, including customer support agents, airport operations, and its office and management staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good news is flight attendants are not affected at all by this,\u201d said Chris Rauenbusch, president of Canada&#8217;s Union of Public Employees, in a phone interview with the <em>Globe and Mail.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"l-article__oembed embed-twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Throughout the COVID-19 crisis we have had to make many challenging decisions. Today is the toughest of all of these difficult days as we look to provide thousands of our own employees with clarity on their roles at WestJet and the future of our airline. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Cz5mG5HRma\">https:\/\/t.co\/Cz5mG5HRma<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/7UZvxNA9Ov\">pic.twitter.com\/7UZvxNA9Ov<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; WestJet (@WestJet) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WestJet\/status\/1275853434797862913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThroughout the course of the biggest crisis in the history of aviation, WestJet has made many difficult, but essential, decisions to future-proof our business,\u201d added Sims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWestJet will once again serve the needs of Canadian travellers with low fares and award-winning service levels tomorrow and years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company said a priority in selecting airport partners will be preferential hiring interviews for some of the 2,300 WestJet airport workers now facing layoffs.<\/p>\n<p>About 2,700 WestJet flight attendants are on temporary layoff, receiving 75 per cent wage subsidies through the federal government, and 260 are due back at work shortly.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The company&#8217;s CEO called the decision &#8220;difficult, but essential,&#8221; adding that the move was necessary &#8220;to provide security to our remaining WestJetters&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2729,"featured_media":84821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9,1],"tags":[292],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldofaviation.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}